Daily Briefing: Industrial space rent drops; Singapore home price drop may prompt curbs lifting

And Noble Group’s Elman increases stake for second day.

Singapore saw the average monthly gross rents of first-storey and upper-storey factory space drop 2.3 percent and 2.9 percent quarter-on-quarter to S$2.10 per sq ft and S$1.65 per sq ft in Q4 2015, revealed a DTZ report. This came as landlords felt the impact from the contraction in net demand for multiple-user factory space. Read more here.

A further slide in residential home prices in 2016 may finally persuade the Singapore government to take its foot off the brakes in Asia’s worst-performing property market. Property brokers including Knight Frank LLP and Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. said the government may be swayed to lift some of the curbs that have depressed local home sales and damped values. Find out more here.

Noble Group Ltd. Chairman Richard Elman bought 20 million shares in the past two days in the commodity trading company he founded to try and restore confidence after the shares sank to the lowest since 2008 and the credit rating was cut to junk. Elman purchased 10 million shares on Monday for S$3.34 million ($2.3 million), raising his holding to 22.28 percent, according to a statement to the Singapore Exchange Tuesday. Find out more here.