Property investment sales up 33.8% to $8b in Q3

Public investments surged thanks to more sales under the Government Land Sales programme.

Total property investment sales value jumped 33.8% QoQ to $8b in Q3, with the residential segment taking the lead as it accounted for 24.1%, according to an Edmund Tie report. The residential property took back its place after it was outpaced by the office segment in the last quarter.

Office properties now make up 20% of the overall investment figure, followed by mixed-use office properties at 19.6%, retail at 13.6%, industrial at 11.3%, hospitality at 10.3% and shophouses at 1.1%.

The private sector accounted for over three-fourths (76.5%) of the quarterly figure, going up 22.7% QoQ to around $5b. About 39.6% of it consists of the office segment, which grew for the second consecutive quarter by 12.5% to $2.83b. Its most significant sale was the $1.58b transaction of DUO Tower.

Industrial private investments came second as its value more than tripled (555% QoQ) to $909.1m, mainly attributed to the sale of two data centres for $599.5m to Keppel DC REIT.

Meanwhile, retail private investment sales value rose for the third consecutive quarter by 7.7% to around $1.1b, due to the sale of 313@ Somerset for $1.b to Lendlease Global Commercial REIT.

On the other hand, private investments in the hospitality, residential and shophouses dipped 2.5%, 11.2% and 32.8% QoQ in Q3, respectively.

Meanwhile, public investments doubled to $1.9b over the same period, thanks to more residential sites being sold under the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme. Residential public investments skyrocketed 115.7% to $875.5m.