Office leasing, rents still on decline in Q3

Grade A CBD rents continued to dip by 5.1%.

Office leasing is still at a standstill despite the circuit breaker easing into Phase 2 in June, a study by Cushman & Wakefield said.

Businesses are seeking more short-term renewals as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect day-to-day activities.

This resulted in more vacant office spaces as the work-from-home option became prevalent.

“In the immediate to short term, the market is expecting a fraction of space to be returned vacant when occupiers renew their leases,” Cushman & Wakefield said.

Grade A central business district rents also decline by 5.1% QoQ to $9.84 psf/month in Q3 of 2020.

The study also noted that some companies are turning to Singapore for their business.

Some Chinese tech firms are planning to take up offices in the country.

ByteDance, owner of video sharing app TikTok, applied for a license to operate a digital bank while tech firm Tencent expressed plans to open an office in Singapore.

Christine Li, head of research at Cushman & Wakefield, projects that more movement in the Grade A market is well in the future as more Chinese tech firms adopt the same approach.