Singapore real estate draws $26.2 bil of investment sales in 2021: Cushman & Wakefield

SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - Singapore’s real estate market attracted almost $26.2 billion in investment sales last year, an increase of 10.4% y-o-y, as economic recovery boosted investor confidence in the market, observes Cushman & Wakefield.

In 4Q2021, total investment volume moderated to around $7.4 billion, which Cushman & Wakefield attributes to a lack of major Government Land Sale sites sold during the quarter as compared to 3Q2021.

Singapore’s private residential market continued to be the main driver of investment sales, comprising 38% of sales in 4Q2021. However, total residential investment volume fell to $2.8 billion in 4Q2021, compared to $3.8 billion registered in the preceding quarter.

“The decrease was mainly driven by the lack of public residential deals as there was no residential GLS tender closing during the quarter, while four residential GLS sites were sold in 3Q2021 for around $1.7 billion,” notes Cushman & Wakefield.

New property measures, which took effect from Dec 16 onwards, are also expected to cool the property market. In particular, “the residential collective sale market is expected to cool as developers become more cautious and selective in their land acquisition activities”, Cushman & Wakefield says. It adds that “nonetheless, the residential collective sale market could still pick up, albeit at a much slower pace, as unsold inventory remains low and developers are still looking to replenish their land banks”.

Singapore’s office leasing market began to recover in 2021. CBD Grade-A office rents inched up 2.3% y-o-y in 2021, while CBD Grade-B rents started to show positive growth in 2H2021, rising by 0.6% over two quarters.

Meanwhile, office investment sales picked up significantly in 4Q2021, with sales value rising more than four-fold to reach $2.2 billion, says the real estate consultancy. This was propped up by “improvement in the leasing market and ample liquidity waiting to be deployed”, it explains.

For the whole of 2021, an estimated $4.8 billion of office investment deals was completed, with around 46% of deal volume registered in 4Q2021 alone.

Notable deals concluded recently included the sale of PIL Building, One George Street, Robinson 112 and Crown At Robinson, it observes.

CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and FWD Group were reported to have sold their respective half-stakes in One George for $1.3 billion to JP Morgan and Nuveen, marking the largest office deal in 2021.