SBF Center office units successfully leased out at $8 per sq ft per month in May 2022

​Data from Squarefoot showed that the transacted price is the highest so far for SBF Center and along Robinson Road.

By Khalil Adis

SBF Center located at 160 Robinson Road. Photo: Khalil Adis.

Two office units at SBF Center were transacted for $8 per sq ft per month in May 2022 or at $16,500 per month.

According to data from Squarefoot, the median rental for SBF Center is $7.18 per sq ft per month while the historical rental along Robinson Road ranges from $6.5 per sq ft per month in January 2022 to $7.18 per sq ft per month in May 2022.

This means the office units were the highest price transacted so far for SBF Center and along Robinson Road.

The units face Cecil Street with an awe-inspiring view of the conserved shophouses of Tanjong Pagar, office buildings and the nearby Raffles Place CBD.

Grade A office rents in the CBD projected to grow by 4.6 per cent

Office buildings located at Tanjong Pagar. Photo: Khalil Adis.

With the government now mandating that starting from 1 January 2022, fully vaccinated employees can return to work, demand for Grade A office space is now slowly returning to pre-pandemic level.

A report released in February 2022 by Cushman and Wakefield predicts that Grade A office rents in the Central Business District (CBD) will grow.

“The Singapore office market bottomed out in 2021 as demand continues to recover amidst a flight to quality. Looking ahead, Singapore’s CBD Grade A office rents are projected to grow by 4.6 per cent year-on-year with vacancy rates tightening to below 4 per cent by end-2022, against a backdrop of projected sustained demand of 0.9 million sq ft (msf) and limited supply of 0.8 msf this year,” said Wong Xian Yang, head of research, Singapore at Cushman & Wakefield.

Data from Cushman and Wakefield also showed that Grade A and B office spaces are seeing growths after six consecutive quarters of decline since the first quarter of 2020, although this was still lower than the growth that was recorded before the pandemic began.

“CBD Grade A office rents rose by 1.7 per cent quarter-to-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2021, marking three consecutive quarters of growth. For the whole of 2021, CBD Grade A rents grew 2.3 per cent year-on-year to reach $9.81 per sq ft per month, although this remains about 8.0 per cent below pre-pandemic (fourth quarter of 2019) levels,” its report cites.