Singapore sees significant growth in economic rent for office development: CBRE

Limited asset repricing helped mitigate increases in economic rents in Singapore.

Singapore is amongst the markets in Asia Pacific that have reported significant growth in economic rents for office developments over the past five years, a report from CBRE Research released in July 2025 said. 

Aside from Singapore, Australia, Seoul, and Beijing have also seen great growth in the past five years.

CBRE said in its report that it expects more office developments in Asia Pacific to continue to be postponed as investors find it difficult to justify commencing work on new schemes. This will constrain the supply pipeline in the medium term. 

As a result, the region’s office markets will adjust to the tighter supply-demand imbalance, which will help rental growth align with the change in construction and land costs.

CBRE said that between 2020 and 2024, supply chain issues and inflation resulted in cumulative construction costs rising by 10% in Singapore.

Whilst construction costs and land values have risen in Singapore, limited asset repricing and changes in tenant incentives have helped mitigate pressure on economic rents. 

CBRE highlighted that markets with strong rental prospects like Singapore, Australia, Japan, India, and Korea will attract the lion’s share of investment demand in the second half of 2025.