Category Archives: Office / Retail / Industrial

More office space for lease this year

Posted on 3 May 2012 | Comments Off on More office space for lease this year

DTZ Research said it expects more office space to be returned to the market for lease for the rest of 2012.

In a report, DTZ said about 215,000 square feet of shadow space was made available in the first quarter of the year, up 15 per cent on-quarter.

Shadow space refers to the excess space that companies have leased but are looking to sublet.

DTZ said another 700,000 sq ft could be returned to the market in the coming quarters, either as shadow space or following lease expiry as companies relocate to newer office buildings.

Despite the limited supply of new office space this year, DTZ said there would be some downward pressure on rents as companies remain cautious, avoiding pre-committing to additional space.

DTZ added that landlords of buildings with high occupancy are still keeping gross face rents unchanged.

It said the average gross face rent for prime office space, which does not take into account rent holiday, stood at S$12.00 per sq ft per month in Marina Bay and S$9.80 in Raffles Place in Q1 2012.

But DTZ noted that landlords are more keen to offer leasing incentives such as longer rent holiday ranging between two and six months to fill up the premises.

A two-month rent holiday could translate into savings of 5.6 per cent on effective rent according to DTZ.

The findings also showed that more financial and insurance companies are moving in to Marina Bay.

DTZ said as of Q1 2012, three-quarters of occupied office space in Marina Bay was taken up by companies in the FI sector, compared to 55 per cent in Raffles Place.

The amount of space occupied by FI companies in Marina Bay is expected to grow as occupiers move in to newly completed buildings such as Asia Square Tower 1 and Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3.

DTZ head of Asia Pacific Research Chua Chor Hoon said: “The desire by FI companies to be in prestigious locations and in newer buildings designed to suit their needs has led to their gravitation to Marina Bay.

“As more buildings are completed in Marina Bay, the space occupied by FI companies there could soon close in on that in Raffles Place in the next five years.”

Despite the relocation of FI companies to Marina Bay, DTZ said the occupancy rate in Raffles Place has held up better in Q1 2012 because of its bigger base of tenants.

The study covers buildings with more than 100,000 sq ft of net lettable area.

Source: – CNA 3 May 2012

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New shopping mall to be built in Jurong East

Posted on 2 Jun 2011 | Comments Off on New shopping mall to be built in Jurong East

Property group CapitaLand and two of its subsidiaries CapitaMalls Asia and CapitaMall Trust Management will build a S$1.5 billion retail and office property on their newly acquired land site in Jurong Gateway.

They said the 25-storey property will complement offerings from their nearby malls IMM and JCube.

The White site was acquired for S$969 million or S$1,012 per square foot per plot ratio, based on a plot ratio of 4.9.

The site is the second one to be released as part of the development of Jurong into a work-live-play hub in the West.

The first site was acquired by Australian developers Lend Lease for S$748.8 million in June last year.

Lend Lease is building a mixed-use development on the site.

The firms said the property’s retail and office components will ride on retail rental growth, as well as the development of the surrounding Jurong Lake District.

The 957,780 square feet retail and office property would be built right beside Jurong MRT Station.

The shopping mall component of the property is five-storeys high and is expected to open by December 2013.

The mixed-use property lies between IMM Building and JCube – which are also developed by CapitaLand’s retail and trust units.

CapitaMall Trust Management chief executive officer Simon Ho said: “We think there is still room for retail in Jurong East.

“We already operate IMM and JCube in this area but we find that another mall will be useful to serve the one million population catchment in Jurong, Clementi, Bukit Batok and so on”.

Together with IMM Building and the upcoming JCube, there will be a total of one million square feet of net lettable area in the Jurong Gateway area, offered by CapitaLand’s retail and trust units.

The project is also in the heart of the Jurong Lake District, slated to be a new regional hub in the west of Singapore.

The Jurong Gateway area is also about 2.5 times larger than the Tampines Regional Centre.

Analysts said Jurong Gateway holds much potential for retail malls.

Chesterton Suntec International head of research and consultancy Colin Tan said: “Its main attraction is the interchange… at the crossroads of MRT lines.

“That alone should ensure there will be crowds there. It will have enough shopping and commercial space to be an attraction in itself”.

CapitaMall Trust Management said its new development should ride on steady retail rental growth.

The project’s retail rentals are expected at S$16 to S$18 per square foot.

It will target mini-anchor and specialty tenants, in order to complement Lend Lease and the upcoming JCube’s anchor tenants.

“For the first quarter, CapitaMall Trust renewed about 145 leases and we got a 7.5 per cent increase over the previous rent. That’s pretty decent and that’s leases spread out through surbuban malls and city malls,” Mr Ho said.

The project’s 20 floors of office space should be fully operational by end-2014.

By then, its developers said its office rentals should reach S$8 per square foot.

CapitaLand’s retail and trust units said the project’s yields, which are based on both office and retail rentals, should come up to about six per cent annually once it is up and running.

Source : CNA – 1 Jun 2011

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