Rental rates for Central Business District (CBD) offices are expected to rise next year, which may push companies to reconsider relocating to regional commercial hubs.
While office rents are expected to ride a growth curve towards the end of 2017, a sustained recovery is expected to occur only in 2018. That however gives companies the value of time to weigh in on the possibility of moving outside of the CBD and into growing regional hubs where they could save on housing and commercial space rental.
Take the upcoming Paya Lebar Quarter for example. Its 840,000 sq ft of office space across 3 towers will be ready for occupation next year and on the other side of the island, Woods Square in Woodlands will offer up 534,000 sq ft of office space by 2019. While this means the companies will have to be situated away from the buzz of the CBD, the decentralisation of office spaces is timely as the government moves towards a new era of self-sustaining regional townships.
Photo credit: Far East Organization
The limited supply, of less than 1 million sq ft, of additional office space in the prime Central Business District from now to 2020 could mean a projected rental growth. Though Frasers Tower and Robinson Tower will add a combined 823,000 sq ft of new office space to the CBD next year, it is still a long way below the 2.15 million sq ft injected by the Marina One and 5 Shenton Way developments this year.
