Global financial services provider AXA will become the anchor tenant for the office building, 8 Shenton Way, located within the Central Business District. The group has worked out the agreement with MGPA, a private equity real estate investment advisory company, which owns the building. Under a six-year term, AXA will occupy five floors totaling about 70,000 square feet. The company has an option to...
Office / Retail Space
Overseas Union Enterprise (OUE) has bought DBS Towers One and Two for nearly S$871 million. DBS Towers, with a 99-year lease, is located at Shenton Way in the heart of the central business district. DBS Tower One was built in 1975 and was then the tallest building in Singapore and the first to incorporate a covered walkway around the entire city block. Together with DBS Tower Two, the 37-storey...
Around 1.5 million square metres of office space was absorbed in the Asia Pacific market in the second quarter of this year. That's almost five times the amount recorded during the same period in 2009. A new research report released by global property adviser DTZ has found that occupied space in the Asia Pacific region increased significantly in the quarter, as companies resumed expansion plans and...
Analysts have said Grade B and C offices need to offer more attractive features like new facilities, or risk falling occupancy levels. Already, there is a growing trend of tenants from the banking sector relocating to Grade A office space or planning to do so. Banks are leading a flight to Grade A office space as the sector rebounds strongly from the financial crisis and prepares for further...
Singapore has held on to its position as the third most expensive office location in the Asia-Pacific region for the second quarter of this year, according to Colliers International's latest Asia Pacific Office Market Overview. Singapore commanded annual gross rents of about US$58 ($77) per square foot (psf) in the second quarter, while Tokyo and Hong Kong took top and second spot with rents of around...
NET office demand surged in the second quarter of this year to its highest quarterly level since Q3 2007. Urban Redevelopment Authority figures released yesterday showed a net increase in demand of 398,264 square feet in Q2, up about 68 per cent from the previous quarter. The Singapore office market has not seen such strong quarterly take-up since Q3 2007, when net demand of 646,000 sq ft was...
New Creation and City Harvest don't flout new rules but will have to abide by usage curbs: URA THE commercial investments of New Creation Church and City Harvest Church do not infringe the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) new guidelines, it has been clarified. But plans for the one-north hub and Suntec Convention Centre will have to comply with restrictions on the use of commercial space for worship,...
The number of commercial units, typically shophouses and strata units for office and shops, sold in 1H 2010 remained similar to that in 2H 2009. A total of 495 commercial units were transacted in 1H 2010, reflecting a 4 per cent decrease compared to that in 2H 2009. Although economic conditions have tremendously improved in 1H 2010, the number of commercial properties transacted was subdued, underpinned...
So, where does this leave the churches? Commercial premises cannot be owned by or exclusively leased to religious organisations, state the guidelines released yesterday. So, where does this leave City Harvest Church with its $310-million stake in Suntec Singapore? Or New Creation Church, whose business arm is partnering CapitaMalls Asia to build a $1-billion lifestyle hub in One North? The Urban...
New guidelines on the limited and non-exclusive use of commercial spaces for religious activities were issued on Tuesday. The guidelines were jointly issued by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS). Under the guidelines, sites zoned for "Commercial" use in URA's Master Plan are intended for commercial activities should serve as secular...