Industrial property prices fell 5.7% in Q4

Developers are holding back launches and preferring to lease out instead.

Overall industrial prices in Q4 fell 5.7% YoY, whilst single user and multi-user factory prices dropped by 7.1% YoY and 4.8% YoY, respectively, JTC revealed.

On a quarterly basis, overall prices fell 1.1% QoQ, marking 11 consecutive quarters of price decline since 1Q2015. Both single and multi-user factory prices fell in Q4, falling 1.9% and 0.6% respectively.

Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) noted that prices of multi-user factories which have less than 30 years of lease remaining fell the most by 2.3% QoQ. Multi-user factory with longer leases of more than 60 years saw price increases of 2.3%, whereas multi-user factories with 31 to 60 years of lease remaining saw prices fall by 0.5% QoQ.

There were no new sales or subsales caveats lodged within the quarter.

C&W research director Christine Li said, "Market sentiment remains muted due to falling rents and developers are generally holding back launches and choosing to lease the units out instead."

Tricia Song, head of research for Singapore, Colliers International, also commented, "Prices and rents may start to stabilise in tandem with occupancy rates."

Already, overall occupancy rebounded by 0.3ppt QoQ to 88.9%, led mainly by warehouse which improved 1.6ppt QoQ.