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Despite dipping by 40.9 percent quarter-on-quarter, real estate investment deals in Singapore jumped 67.4 percent year-on-year to S$4.99 billion in Q1 2017, revealed a JLL report.
The private sector accounted for 90 percent of the total Q1 2017 sales at S$4.47 billion.
“The engine of growth for Singapore’s private investment sales market in Q1 2017 was the office sector which took the lion’s share at 47.5 percent,” said JLL Singapore head of research and consultancy Tay Huey Ying.
During the period, investors injected around S$2.12 billion in the office sector, up 60.6 percent from the previous quarter’s S$1.32 billion and the highest first quarter private sector office investment sales value registered since 2008.
The top two office deals in Q1 2017 were entity sales – the S$760.60 million sale of the holding company of PwC to Manulife Financial Corporation’s indirect subsidiary and the S$725.21 million sale of Plaza Ventures Pte Ltd, which is GSH Plaza’s registered owner and developer, to Hong Kong-listed Fullshare Holdings.
With this, JLL Singapore head of capital markets Greg Hyland is optimistic of the office investment sales market’s prospect for this year.
“Investors’ confidence in Singapore’s office property market continues to be on the rise, underpinned by the city state’s sound economic fundamentals. They are acutely aware that the window of opportunity to acquire available assets at an attractive point in the cycle is fast closing as the office leasing market is already showing signs of stability at the prime CBD end,” he noted.
In fact, Tay expects full-year sales of private office assets for 2017 to surpass that of last year. This comes as the S$2.12 billion amassed in Q1 2017 already accounted for almost a third of the entire S$4.26 billion sales in 2016.
Overall, Tay expects property investment sales in Singapore to have a strong run in 2017.
“Macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainties are working to Singapore’s favour as investors look to Singapore as a safe haven to park their capital. Investors are also optimistic that Singapore’s property market is close to the bottom and are confident that entering the market now will position them well to ride on the impending growth,” she said.
This article was edited by Denise Djong.
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