The Urban Redevelopment Authority grant more office land

The Urban Redevelopment Authority granted provisional permission in the first quarter of this year for six projects that can generate a combined 121,360 square metres (1.3 million square feet) gross floor area of offices.

The biggest project, involving nearly 500,000 sq ft of offices, is at Alexandra Distripark, owned by Mapletree Investments.

Approval has also been given to OUB Centre Ltd to add nearly 52,000 sq ft of offices and about 55,300 sq ft of shop space to OUB Centre at Raffles Place under an additions and alterations scheme proposed by the owner.

Provisional permission has also been given for 123,570 sq ft of ‘reconstruction to existing’ building in the case of Dapenso Building at Cecil Street/Stanley Street.

A stone’s throw away, a Kajima-Lehman joint venture received the green light for 275,900 sq ft of offices at Robinson Road (on the Crosby House site).

Straits Trading also obtained provisional permission for a nearly 200,000 sq ft office redevelopment of its Straits Trading Building at Battery Road.

Over in North Bridge Rd/High Street area, approval has been given to add 160,000 sq ft of offices and almost 200,000 sq ft of retail area to be housed in a nine-storey commercial building and additions/alterations to the Funan Digitalife Mall.

URA’s office price index appreciated 4.3 per cent in Q1 this year over the preceding quarter, slower than a 7.7 per cent gain registered in Q4 last year.

The office rental index gained 10.4 per cent in Q1, following an 11.6 per cent rise in Q4. With tightening office space, the vacancy rate fell from 10.3 per cent as at Dec 31, 2006, to 9.1 per cent as at March 31, 2007. CB Richard Ellis says: ‘Looking ahead, we expect demand drivers to remain strong albeit demand levels in 2007 may stay below the exceptional 2.4 million sq ft in 2006, principally due to the constraints imposed by the lack of new supply as well as low vacancy rate. It is likely that some demand may divert to business parks as well as high-tech industrial space.’

Source: The Business Times, 28 April 2007