_Market Roundup 2024 & Outlook 2025

Residential Q4 2024: Ending the year with a big bang

• URA non-landed price index grew 3.2% q-o-q, driven by a series of new launches in October and November, accompanied by moderate to high take-up rates depending on the project
• Overall non-landed sales surged 35.1% q-o-q to 6,401 units Q4 2024, with the jump in sales due to improving homebuyer sentiment due to falling interest rates, and accumulated pent-up demand after muted activity for most of 2024.
• Knight Frank projects that non-landed new sales volume would likely range between 7,000 and 9,000 in 2025, with overall non-landed home transactions from 19,000 to 23,000. Prices are likely to grow between 3% and 5%, with the growth supported by moderate-to-healthy take-up rates at new launches in the year ahead.
  
  
  

Retail Q4 2024: Infusing more variety in Singapore’s retail scene

• Total international visitor arrivals in the first 11 months of 2024 totalled 15.1 million, surpassing 13.6 million for whole of 2023.
• Improving Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) activities supported the strong growth in prime retail rents in the Marina Centre, City Hall, Bugis micromarket.
• However, retail operating environment remains challenging due to prevailing high labour, occupational and material costs slowing rental growth.
• With the increased craving for new product as well as experiences, consumers are increasingly attracted to novelty. International brands continue to enter the market, with many favouring central locations.
• Collaboration between government agencies, trade associations and retailers will be critical for the growth of new and novel retail concepts in a challenging retail environment.
• The retail sector remains challenging in 2025, and rental growth is expected to ease and stabilise within a projected range of between 1% and 3%.

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Average Gross Rents of Prime Retail Spaces*, Q4 2024

Office Q4 2024: Office occupiers likely to sit tight to rid out the unfolding global uncertainty

Estimated CBD New Supply (2025 – 2028):4.1 million sf (Gross Floor Area)

• Prime Office Rents: S$11.36 psf pm
• Prime Grade office rents in the Raffles Place / Marina Bay precinct increased by a mere 0.1% q-o-q and 2.1% in 204.
• Overall expansion in office rents was largely held in check by occupiers renewing at existing premises.
• Landlords are increasingly willing to incentivise by selectively providing office fit-outs among smaller occupiers.
• Rents are expected to be largely unchanged in H1 2025, with some growth in H2, with office rental growth is likely to range between -1% and 2% for the whole of 2025.
  
  

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Industrial Q4 2024: Electronics continued to drive manufacturing rebound

• Singapore's economy grew by 4.0% in 2024, up from 1.1% in 2023. The manufacturing sector grew 4.2% y-o-y in Q4 2024, with growth mainly driven by the electronics cluster.
• Sales activity of industrial properties slowed in Q4 2024 despite US Fed interest rate cuts, following a peak in Q3 2024 that was characterised by many major deals. Similarly, leasing activity eased, but island-wide industrial rents stayed stable.
• Cost pressures pushed some manufacturers to exit, but the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JB-SG SEZ) provides cost-mitigation opportunities via offshoring. At the same time, other advanced electronics manufacturers continue to expand in Singapore.
• Stable manufacturing and new investments will support demand for factory spaces in 2025. While the business park landscape will remain challenging; prices and rents of warehouse properties are expected to be stable.
• Factory rents are projected to grow 1% to 3% and prices could rise 3% to 5% in 2025. End-users and investors will both be on the lookout, with the latter looking for assets with more than 20 years remaining on the land tenure.
  
  

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