Singapore office rental slips by 9.5% in 2020

Rental market forecasted to still be on the decline this year.

Singapore office rental is down by 9.5% YoY in Q4 2020 in Knight Frank Research’s Asia-Pacific Prime Office Rents index.

The future remains bleak as the property research firm predicts office rent to still be down in the next 12 months.

Overall, the index showed that Asia Pacific prime office rents were down by 4.9% YoY, whilst vacancy rose from 0.8% to 13.4% on continued new supply additions and muted demand.

KF said whilst the hope for vaccines may have rekindled hopes for economic growth across APAC, they see the uncertainty created by recent infection resurgences, which has put some markets back into lockdown, could act as a deterrent for occupiers and potentially hamstring any recovery momentum built up towards late last year.

The firm predicts office property rents may decline by 3%.