Average Grade A office rents up 2.8% in Q3

Will this upward trend continue next year?

According to Cushman & Wakefield, average Grade A office rents have appreciated by 2.8% on a quarter-on-quarter basis with all the five major submarkets registering a rise in average rent.

Overall vacancies fell across the CBD – as exemplified by Shenton Way where the calculated rate fell by almost one percentage point to 4% at the end of Q3.

And Raffles Place’s vacancy dropped to a level below 5%. The lowest reading among the main submarkets was in Orchard Road with a vacancy of below 0.5%.

The exception to this trend was Marina Bay, where the delivery of new tower to the market pushed up Marina Bay’s average vacancy rate to 11.2% from 3.6% recorded a quarter ago.

However – Marina Bay’s vacancy rate is expected to drop thanks to the space abortion in Asia Square Tower 2 and the area’s image as the emerging business magnet, and therefore rents here are forecast to hold firm.

Toby Dodd, Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefield Singapore comments: “The office market has continued to perform well in the third quarter, which we forecast to continue through to 2014.”

Sigrid Zialcita, Managing Director for Cushman & Wakefield’s Research team in Asia Pacific, comments:

“The recovery that started during H1 has continued, supported by the Singapore economy which is likely to post a stronger expansion for the full year of 2013 than in 2012, and the picture beyond this year looks encouraging”