While global office markets continue to diverge in performance, CBD office rents in Singapore signaled late-cycle resilience in Q4 2025, with Grade A rents rising 0.7% quarter-on-quarter as vacancies tightened to 4.4% from 4.7%, and full-year 2025 rental growth accelerating to 2.4% year-on-year, ahead of 2024’s 1.7%.
Singapore CBD Grade A rents rose 0.7% in Q4 2025 as vacancies tightened to 4.4%, lifting 2025 growth to 2.4%.
In Q3 2025, Grade A rents had already risen 0.5% quarter-on-quarter as vacancy fell to 4.7%.
The quarter marked the seventh consecutive quarterly increase, a run underpinned less by exuberant leasing than by limited availability in prime towers.
Net demand reached 0.7 million square feet in 2025, easing from 0.9 million in 2024 and below the historical annual average of 0.9 million, yet new Grade A supply was also contained at 0.6 million square feet.
In this configuration, the tenants “paying up” are, by definition, those needing immediate CBD footprints and accepting higher face rents to secure scarce Grade A vacancy, rather than waiting for additional completions.
The supply pipeline remains thin, with only 0.4 million square feet scheduled for completion in 2026 and 0.2 million in 2027, and vacancy is projected to fall below 4.0% in 2026 as constrained deliveries support faster rental growth.
The Singapore pattern contrasts with conditions in the United States, where office vacancies are near a 40-year high and roughly 902 million square feet sits vacant nationwide.
National office listing rates averaged $32.86 per square foot in December, and asking rents rose 1.0% year-over-year in Q1 2025, with secondary and tertiary markets posting stronger gains of 3.6%.
Market pricing signals stress in many CBDs, with about 70% of CBD properties selling at a discount since 2023, and suburban offices showing stronger occupied stock than CBDs. In many U.S. urban cores, post‑COVID peak‑to‑trough pricing is down ~50%, amplifying the gap between rent optics and transaction realities.
Washington, D.C. illustrates the divergence, with average asking rents at $41.52 per square foot in Q3 2025 alongside direct CBD vacancy of 19.1% and total vacancy of 20.0%, negative net absorption of 184,870 square feet, and leasing activity of 4,787,159 square feet.
Against that backdrop, Singapore’s tightening vacancy and constrained pipeline imply that rent growth is being set by marginal demand competing for limited prime space, rather than by broad-based expansion.
This dynamic keeps effective rents firm despite softer demand.
A parallel trend is the flight to quality, with corporates consolidating into fewer, higher‑spec premises and driving take‑up to strengthen via renewals and upgrades.
