Prices of retail space, rentals in Singapore down 1.9% in 1Q as vacancies creep up

PRICES of retail space in Singapore continued to fall by 1.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, after declining 0.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

Rentals of retail space also fell by 1.9 per cent in Q1, after declining 1.3 per cent in the previous quarter.

The island-wide vacancy rate of retail space also creeped up to 7.3 per cent at the end of the quarter, from 7.2 per cent at the end of the previous quarter.

Within the quarter, the amount of occupied retail space increased by 11,000 square metre (nett), while the stock of retail space increased by 19,000 square metre (nett), which led to the rise in vacancy.

As at end-March 2016, there was a total supply of 783,000 square metres gross floor area of retail space from projects in the pipeline.