SG’s commercial real estate sales jump 40% YoY to US$3.7b in Q1

The Lion City is amongst the only two major markets to post an increase in investment volume.

Singapore rose to be the most active metro in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in terms of commercial real estate investment, data from MSCI Real Assets showed.

Last year, the Lion City ranked fifth.

According to the report, Singapore’s commercial real estate sales soared by 40% YoY to US$3.7b in Q1, making it one of the two major markets in the region to post an increase in investment volume in Q1. The other market was Hong Kong.

What lifted Singapore in the ranks was the sale of the Mercatus retail portfolio across two separate deals, which alone accounted for 60% of deal volumes within the quarter.

MCSI Real Assets added that Singapore’s industrial sector also posted strong growth year-on-year.

“While the Mercatus shopping malls will steal most of the headlines, Singapore’s commercial real estate market has displayed resilience in many other ways. The number of deals fell by less than 10% from last year – only China fared better across all the major markets globally – illustrating the depth of private and corporate appetite for real estate in the city-state,” Benjamin Chow, head of Asia Real Assets Research at MSCI, said.