AMONG the major sectors of the local property market, the office sector had been seen as a pariah. The post-Lehman crisis redrew the financial landscape where deleveraging was the buzzword. Financial institutions were in no mood to expand, cost cuttings were deep and on top of that, the crisis triggered a series of flare-ups in the eurozone. As the supply of Grade A office buildings in the CBD increased with the completion of the new buildings in the Marina Bay area, vacancy levels started to rise. Consequently, by the law of demand and supply, rents began to decline, and had been doing so continuously since the second quarter of 2011.
The appetite for micro-strata units from small-time investors driven out of the residential market has maintained, if not, increased the rate per square foot paid for commercial property. This, in addition to a low interest rate environment has squeezed yields as capital values remained high, leading transaction volumes to decline as institutional buyers found it difficult to justify a purchase based on initial rental returns.