What is the demand for large retail spaces in the central region of Singapore for Q4 2022?

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the Singapore retail market showed several positive trends, particularly for large and prime retail spaces.

- The island-wide retail vacancy rate decreased to 11.3% from the previous quarter, with withdrawals of space contributing to this reduction. Despite this, the private retail market saw a surge in leasing activity, which is a common trend during the festive period. This resulted in a strong positive net absorption of about 660,000 square feet, the highest quarterly net absorption since the second quarter of 2019.

- Prime retail rents island-wide increased by 1.7% quarter-on-quarter to reach an average of $26.10 per square foot per month. This growth brought the full-year prime retail rental growth to 2.6% for 2022.

- All submarkets, including the Outside Central Region (OCR), registered positive net absorption in Q4 2022. The OCR, which is indicative of suburban retail, saw significant interest from retailers, leading to a drop in vacancy rates from 5.3% to 3.8%, the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2013.

These indicators suggest that the demand for large and prime retail spaces in the Central Region and other areas remained robust in Q4 2022, driven by increased leasing activity and positive net absorption.