Industrial Property SGPrices of Singapore industrial properties increased slightly in first quarter of 2015 and rents generally stabilized, according to JTC latest statistics.

Overall prices of industrial properties increased 0.7% on a quarterly basis, while for year-on-year basis prices increased by 0.5 percent.

The prices of single-user factory space climbed by 1.6 % on a quarterly basis and for an annual basis, prices rose by 3.1 percent. While for multiple-user factory space, prices rose slightly by 0.1% for quarterly basis and 0.6% for annual basis.

The 0.7% prices increase of industrial properties in general reversed the two consecutive quarters of drop, according to Colliers International.

While, the latest update of property rental index (PRI) for the overall industrial properties showed that Singapore industrial rents for Q1 rebounded a bit by 0.4% following a rent fall of 0.6% in last quarter. This shows the 2% drop from the same period years ago.

The improvement of quarterly rental was led the business park and warehouse segments, in which the rent increased by 0.6% and 0.4% respectively, while the single-use factory space posted a slight rental increased by 0.3 percent, and the multi-user factory space recorded the smaller hike of 0.1 percent.

Looking forward, approximately 2.1 million sq m of Singapore industrial project is estimated to launch through the next three quarters, including the multiple-user factory in a 420,000 sq m space. While the 2.5 million sq m industrial space is expected to come onstream by 2016. Another industrial property with expected TOP in 2016 is Mapex @ Jalan Pemimpin, a light industrial development located at Jalan Pemimpin Singapore.

The overall prices of industrial projects could ease by about 3% this 2015, given the growing interest rates, weak buying demand, soften Singapore rents and the expectations of sellers and buyers in the diverging price of strata-titled industrial segment.