Landed property stays local, for the time being
There are no plans to liberalise the existing restrictions on foreigners buying landed properties in Singapore, the Law Ministry said yesterday. ‘In land scarce Singapore, landed properties have to be treated as a special category where purchases by foreigners are subject to special approval,’ a MinLaw spokesman said.

Earlier this week, BT reported on a paper by Goldman Sachs (Singapore), which argued a case for lifting restrictions on foreigners buying landed homes in Singapore. The Goldman Sachs paper said such a change would serve as a catalyst for further foreign buying of private homes and boost the current residential property upcycle. Removing the restrictions would result in some positive spinoffs, and residential developers could gain from even greater foreign buying interest given the positive message such a move would send.

‘We think relaxing restrictions on foreigners buying landed property would accelerate Singapore’s efforts to attract foreign talent,’ the Goldman Sachs paper had said. However, some BT readers take a different view. One, Singaporean Patrick Chia, managing director of Hospitality Associates, who is a landed property owner, said: 'If foreigners are allowed to freely buy landed property, all the non-government owned landed property could theoretically and practically be bought up, because in this 21st Century, the world is flush with liquidity. The current abundance of petro-dollars from the oil-rich Middle-East countries and Russia can easily buy up Singapore. So can the current American and European funds with their billions. Bankers and real estate agents can confirm that foreign funds are looking for Singapore property assets to buy.’

Mr Chia, who has nearly 30 years’ experience in the Singapore property business, also recapped the historical circumstances in the early 1970s that led to the government introducing the Residential Property Act in 1973. That law bars foreigners, including permanent residents, from buying landed property here without prior government approval. ‘Way back in 1973, with the first oil shock when oil prices sky-rocketed, then-rich neighbours, Indonesians and Malaysians, were able to freely buy Singapore landed property and much of the prime landed real estate were bought by them. The government, realising the future implications of such a scenario if left unchecked, wisely instituted the current curbs to foreigner purchase of landed property,’ Mr Chia added.

And over the past 30 years, the government has continuously relaxed the curbs as needed, and pointed out that the Singapore government has been very accommodating in this regard compared with many other countries. In Singapore, foreigners have to be PRs before they can receive permission to buy landed homes on mainland Singapore, and Sentosa Cove is the only location where foreigners who are not PRs are allowed to purchase landed property. Even then, foreign would-be buyers must seek permission from the Land Dealings (Approval) Unit under the Singapore Land Authority.

Foreigners, including PRs, can at any one time own only one landed home in Singapore and must occupy it themselves rather than renting it out. Among the criteria that the Minister for Law will consider when asked to approve foreigners/PRs buying a landed home in Singapore are the applicant’s qualifications and whether the applicant has made, or will be able to make, adequate economic contribution to Singapore.

Typically, it takes about four weeks for approval to be granted, but on Sentosa Cove, the time has been cut to less than 48 hours under a special fast-track approval scheme. The landed properties that foreigners and PRs may be permitted to buy must have a land area of no more than 15,000 sq ft, although exceptions have been made, with some PRs buying Good Class Bungalows, which have a plot size of at least 1,400 square metres (about 15,070 sq ft). Foreign buyers may acquire an unlimited number of non-landed private homes, that is, condominiums and apartments. The only foreigners who may buy HDB flats on the resale market are PRs.
Source: The Business Times, 28 June 2007

Forum from the public: There has been disturbing talk in the media recently that the restrictions on foreigners buying landed homes in Singapore could be relaxed.I hope the authorities would quickly nip this rumour in the bud before there is too much public disquiet.Goldman Sachs (Singapore) is lobbying for the rescindment of the Residential Property Act, which has, since 1973, restricted foreigners and permanent residents from owning landed residential property without prior official approval.Goldman Sachs argues that this change would serve as a catalyst for further foreign buying of private homes and boost the current residential property up-cycle.

To further support this argument, it implies that Singaporeans already have a stake in the country by virtue of public housing catering to 80 per cent of us.I doubt anyone in Singapore really feels that the property market requires more encouragement. If anything, the reverse is probably true and the authorities are probably contemplating measures to cool the red-hot market to bring it to a more sustainable level.Goldman Sach’s reference to public housing also comes across as being a tad condescending to me.Hence I agree fully with the industry’s opinion leaders, who were quoted to be mostly against this proposal.

Mr Charles Chong, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee (National Development and Environment), was quoted as saying: ‘Landed properties should not be priced out of Singaporeans’ reach (or) it could lead to disgruntled Singaporeans.’Others said that the existing Act has the positive effect of ‘encouraging foreigners to commit to Singapore, to sink their roots here’ and that landed-property ownership is one of the ‘privileges of being Singaporean’.In Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth, the protagonist Wang Lung chided his sons when he overheard them talking about selling the land which he had loved so much. He said: ‘…if you sell the land, it is the end.’ - Dr Huang Shoou Chyuan.

The recent report and recommendation by an American bank that the restrictions on foreigners to purchase landed property be lifted is something which I feel the majority of Singaporeans would be up against.Additionally the economic arguments are flawed. The report seems to imply that lifting the restrictions will reduce the supply crunch and help control prices.I think lifting the restrictions will have detrimental effects - landed property prices will experience sharp jumps leading to an even greater frenzy in the property sector.

Cost of living and cost of business will jump again, leading to higher inflation and further reduce our cost-competitiveness.However, the most important factors against it are the sociopolitical effects.Singapore is a country owned by Singaporeans. If the restrictions are lifted very soon, Singaporeans will be renting from foreigners to live in Singapore, leading to alienation and resentment among the population.Lifting the restrictions belittles the privileges of citizenship too.In the same way that National Service is expected only from citizens, certain rights and privileges should continue to be reserved for citizens. - David Ng Boon Kiong

Source: The Straits Times, 28 June 2007
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Asian property will continue to rise; predicted investors
It’s a decade since an asset bubble fed the Asian economic crisis and fears swirl over the US housing market and interest rates, but investors still believe the only way for Asia’s soaring property markets is up - at least for a couple of years. Asian economies are booming, and property is once again the hot subject of dinner conversations from Tokyo to Mumbai, fuelled by cheap credit, cross-border investment and rising incomes.

Policy-makers fear a boom-and-bust cycle where rising real estate prices fuel inflation and force interest rates higher, leaving households and companies loaded with debt and dragging on economic activity. But at the Reuters Real Estate Summit this week in Singapore, where some residents are seeing their rents jump 50 per cent overnight, property executives effused about India, despite a doubling in urban land prices since foreign property investment was ushered in two years ago.

Japan also appears to be still hugely popular, although average Tokyo office prices have leapt 25per cent in last two years. And investors believe government cooling measures will bring order to China’s market, while failing to stem a hunger for homes among the expanding and increasingly affluent middle class.

Justin Chiu, executive director of Hong Kong property giant Cheung Kong (Holdings), said the prospect of ever higher prices was driving Asia’s notoriously sentiment-driven markets. ‘If there are no bubbles, you don’t drink beer. It’s just plain water and there’s no incentive to invest,’ he said. ‘Of course, if you see too many bubbles, you stop pouring.’

Cheung Kong expects mainland China to account for a third of its property earnings by 2010 from about 18 per cent now. The Asian continent saw some US$94 billion of property investment in 2006, up 43 per cent on the previous year, but barely one-seventh of the global total. And investors show no sign they will stop the flow.

New flavoursMorgan Stanley said last week it had earmarked for 60per cent of a new US$8 billion fund for Asia and Goldman Sachs has raised about the same amount in a couple of funds, according to a source familiar with the matter. ING Real Estate is raising two US$1 billion funds for Asia, and private equity firm Blackstone is raising US$10 billion to spend globally. But some market watchers wonder where all the money will be spent, and if rising values will curb investment returns.

Asian commercial property is tightly held by families and private companies, so Peter Barge, Asia chief executive of property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle, believes many investors will have to take on risky development projects. ‘There’s a lot of money on the books, but people are scratching their heads about what to do with it,’ Mr Barge said. Japan is a perennial favourite in Asia because its US$1.27 trillion of investment-grade property offers huge choice.

Kurt Roeloffs, Asia head for Deutsche Bank’s property unit RREEF, put it at the top of his list followed by China and India. RREEF, one of the world’s biggest property fund managers, plans to spend around 30 per cent of its future private equity funds in Asia, Mr Roeloffs said on Monday. China is drawing Hong Kong developers such as Cheung Kong as well as funds run by ING Real Estate, AETOS Capital and Invesco.

But the new flavours of the month are India and Vietnam, which both rank among the most opaque property markets in the world but promise internal rates of return of 25-30 per cent.Forecasts that Indian property prices have surged too fast and could drop anywhere between 10 and 40 per cent are brushed aside on the grounds that an outsourcing boom is enriching a middle class couped up in crumbling homes built decades ago.

‘India has huge potential,’ said Seek Ngee Huat, head of the GIC Real Estate. An investment company of the Singapore government, and one of the world’s biggest property investors, GIC is eyeing developing markets including Russia and Turkey, while cautious about London offices because of steep price rises. Mr Barge believes Asia has at least two or three years more to run on the upward swing of its property cycle, saying: ‘Mother gravity is always there.’

Mr Seek was wary that defaults on US subprime mortgages could infect the whole financial system. ‘There are certainly financial risks being built up,’ he said. Meanwhile, Liew Mun Leong, chief executive of South-east Asia’s biggest developer, CapitaLand Ltd, which is launching funds for China and India this year, acknowledged that property investors may not have the best crystal balls. ‘It’s funny but we in the property industry can always predict when the market will turn up, but we can never say when it will turn down,’ he said.

Source: The Business Times, 28 June 2007
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Temasek Holdings’ Mapletree Investments profit cross $1b
Temasek Holdings’ Mapletree Investments has topped the billion-dollar mark in earnings for the year ended March 31, 2007, thanks to a huge $971.2 million net revaluation gain. The Singapore investment company’s subsidiary also revealed in its latest annual report plans to launch more real estate investment trusts (Reits) on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) this year.

Mapletree - a Singapore real estate company with an Asian focus - reported a profit after tax and minority interests of $1.07 billion, up from the previous year’s net profit of $144.54 million. But without the $971.2 million net revaluation gain, operating profit was still up $31.8 million or 41 per cent at $109 million, with the boost coming from the positive market outlook in Singapore.

The group’s $971.2 million net revaluation gain was a quantum leap from the previous year’s $1.04 million. This increase was mainly contributed by VivoCity, which was completed in October 2006, as well as the increase in value of Mapletree’s other commercial properties, mostly offices.

The Reits that Mapletree plans to launch on SGX include Mapletree Commercial Trust with the VivoCity mall as the anchor asset and with revenue streams from office, retail and entertainment properties in Singapore. The group, which aims to be a leading real estate capital management company, is also in discussion with Indonesia’s Lippo Group to co-manage an Indonesia-focused shopping mall Reit, Mapletree Investments’ chairman Edmund Cheng said, without elaborating, in his annual report message.

Market watchers reckon that VivoCity itself, with about one million square feet net lettable area, could be worth more than $1.6 billion and that the group could also inject into the proposed Mapletree Commercial Trust its other nearby properties such as St James Power Station, HarbourFront Centre (formerly World Trade Centre), Mapletree’s stakes in HarbourFront Towers One and Two office blocks, PSA Building and PSA Vista. The combined value of the entire portfolio, including VivoCity, could be around $3 billion, say industry observers.

As for the Indonesia-focused mall Reit venture with Lippo, market watchers note Lippo controls 40 malls through its various units. An industry player says it makes sense for Lippo to partner a proven name in the Singapore Reit business if it wants to list a shopping centre Reit in Singapore. The group’s commercial property portfolio includes HarbourFront Centre, HarbourFront Towers One and Two (Mapletree owns 61 per cent of the two buildings), Keppel Bay Tower (30 per cent), SPI Building, St James Power Station, PSA Building and PSA Vista. Mapletree’s industrial property portfolio includes Tanjong Pagar and Pasir Panjang distriparks and Alexandra Distripark (including The Comtech, a high-tech industrial building).

In all, the group’s investment’s properties were valued at $3.72 billion as at March 31, 2007, up from $1.83 billion a year earlier. However, properties under development fell from $569.7 million to $157.7 million due to the re-classification of VivoCity property from ‘properties under development’ to ‘investment properties’ at market valuation upon its completion late last year. Mapletree’s operating profit rose from $77.2 million for financial year ended March 2006 to almost $109 million in FY March 2007 on the back of a 34.7 per cent jump in revenue to $216.6 million. The higher revenue was due mainly to the opening of VivoCity, as well as improved occupancy and rental rates achieved by the group’s other properties. This was partly offset by loss of revenue from properties that were injected into Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT).

The group’s revenue was also boosted from higher fee income, contributed mainly by the SGX-listed MLT. The group also received a new fee income stream from one of its new funds - the privately held Mapletree Industrial Fund. Fee income accounted for 9 per cent of the group’s revenue for FY March 2007, up from a 5 per cent share for FY March 2006, reflecting Mapletree Investments’ expansion into the capital management business. In line with the improved performance, Mapletree Investments’ return on equity rose from 6 per cent in FY March 2006 to 37 per cent in FY March 2007. Return on total assets also increased from 6 per cent to 30 per cent over the same period.

Source: The Business Times, 28 June 2007
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Stanley Ho to take 75% of Nova City/Nova Taipa Gdns project in Macau
Shun Tak Holdings Ltd, run by the family of casino tycoon Stanley Ho, will buy a 75 per cent stake in a Macau property project from Mr Ho’s private company and billionaire Gordon Wu for HK$6.87 billion (S$1.4 billion). Shun Tak will pay Mr Wu’s Hopewell Holdings Ltd HK$4.58 billion for a 50 per cent stake in the Nova City/Nova Taipa Gardens project in Macau, Hopewell said in a statement on Tuesday.

It will pay Mr Ho’s Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau HK$2.29 billion for its 25 per cent stake, Shun Tak spokeswoman Catherine Szeto said. The purchase will give Shun Tak full ownership of the project, up from 25 per cent. Property prices in Macau, the only city in China where casinos are legal, are climbing as soaring gaming revenue and rising tourism boost the economy.

‘We have a leadership role in the property market in Macau,’ Ms Szeto said in a phone interview. The company has sufficient cash and existing financing to pay for the purchase, she added. Shares in Hopewell rose 5.1 per cent to HK$32.75 as of 10:21am in Hong Kong, heading for their biggest gain in more than a year.

Hong Kong-based Shun Tak is buying the shops at Nova Taipa Gardens and Nova City, the uncompleted residential phases four and five of Nova City and all cash and receivables from units sold in the first three phases, the company said in a faxed statement late on Tuesday.Real estate in Macau last year sold at an average 1,519 patacas (S$290.3) per square foot, more than doubling from 2002, according to Midland Realty Ltd, a Hong Kong-based property agency.

Macau’s economy may grow 16.5 per cent this year and next according to Enoch Fung, a Hong Kong-based economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The economy grew 16.6 per cent last year, more than twice as fast as its 6.9 per cent expansion in 2005. Last year, Shun Tak and Hongkong Land Ltd sold all 800 apartments at One Central Residence, a luxury real estate project in Macau at an average price of about HK$5,000 per square foot. The apartments are scheduled to be finished in 2009.

In addition to developing real estate, Shun Tak also operates the main ferry service linking Hong Kong to Macau and manages hotels. Hong Kong-based Hopewell develops real estate, runs hotels and owns stakes in toll roads in China.

Source: The Business Times, 28 June 2007
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Japan property market is attractive but tough
Mikihisa Hirai, president of Atlas Partners Japan Ltd, should be giddy with excitement as European and Middle Eastern clients are due to almost double the size of his property funds to just over US$800 million. But Mr Hirai knows he has his work cut out for him. With Tokyo office rents expected to rise another 60per cent to a peak in 2010 because of shrinking vacancy rates, now at just 2.7 per cent, Japan is a popular place for property investors.

But average prices for commercial buildings have already jumped 25 per cent in the last couple of years, and competition for assets between real estate investment trusts (Reits), private equity funds and institutional investors is hotting up, eating away at returns. ‘There are no simple and easy deals,’ Mr Hirai said. ‘I feel there are more deals where bid prices are ridiculously high.’

With rock-bottom interest rates despite an economic recovery, Japan drew 55per cent of the US$94 billion in property transactions in Asia last year, including an increasing amount of petrodollars from the Middle East. But now, yield-hungry investors are having to scour the country for more complex deals.

For example, Australian listed property trusts are starting to buy Japanese buildings, but employ heavy borrowing and currency hedging to artificially lift a property yield of 5 per cent into a more attractive 7.7 per cent yield for investors back home. Four property trusts carrying Japanese assets have listed in Australia in the past two years, including Babcock & Brown Japan Property Trust and Galileo Japan Trust. Such ‘financial engineering’ gives Australian investors an incentive to buy in Japan, says Peter Barge, chief executive officer of Jones Lang LaSalle Asia.

Deals are also growing bigger, Mr Barge said, as foreign investors try to outrun their local rivals.‘Japanese are becoming major competitors. So they go for deals worth at least half a billion dollars to get away from Japanese competitors,’ he said. ‘You have to be a big investor to find opportunities.’ Yesterday, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp, the Japanese truck unit of DaimlerChrysler AG, said it had sold 180 real estate properties in Japan as part of its efforts to focus on its core businesses, in a deal valued at US$1.4 billion, according to a market source. The properties, mainly of retail operations for its regional sales centres, would be leased back to the same operators.

Investors are also moving away from the staple diet of offices. Australian real estate manager MacarthurCook Ltd is looking to buy Japanese logistics buildings which offer a yield of about 5 per cent, compared with yields for top-notch offices of as low as 2 per cent. ‘Not many logistics properties are included in Japanese Reits yet,’ said Craig Dunstan, managing director and chief investment officer for MacarthurCook. ‘It’s positive from the availability point of view.’

The MacarthurCook Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust SI, which listed in Singapore in April, expects Japan to account for about 20 per cent of its overall portfolio. The Japanese government, worried about another asset bubble, will start monitoring private funds from September, a step likely to force some smaller players out of the market. Others warn that rising interest rates in global markets may depress foreign investor appetite for assets in Japan.

Higher borrowing costs, already higher than property yields in Europe and the United States, could turn property investors more insular, said Daisuke Fukushima, senior analyst Nomura Securities Co Ltd. ‘Negative spreads in some overseas investments are widening and this means that investment properties are incurring latent losses,’ he said. ‘It’s likely that foreign investors will become less aggressive on their global investments when they are not sure how much losses they have at home.’

Source: The Business Times, 28 June 2007
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Who's has the winning bid for the billion dollar Farrer Court sale?
The tender for Farrer Court, Singapore’s first billion-dollar collective sale, closed yesterday with strong bids, industry players reckon. Speculation was that CapitaLand was the front runner and was engaged in negotiations late last night. Credo Real Estate, which is handling Farrer Court’s collective sale, declined to comment.

GuocoLand is also believed to have taken part in the tender. It clinched the freehold Leedon Heights earlier this year at $835 million or $1,062 psf of potential gross floor area. Farrer Court, however, has an even higher absolute reserve price, of $1.2 billion, which works out to slightly over $700 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr) for the 99-year leasehold site. Bids for Farrer Court are believed to have clearly surpassed that.

The official expected price when Farrer Court’s tender was launched last month was $1.5 billion, or around $850 psf ppr. The District 10 site, a privatised HUDC estate, is unique in being the only private residential site in the Farrer Road and Holland Road vicinity that is accorded a high plot ratio of 2.8 and a maximum height of 36 storeys.

Most of the surrounding sites are designated for either landed housing or low or medium-rise developments of up to five or 12 storeys. Farrer Court boasts not only the highest asking price in terms of the absolute dollar quantum for a collective sale, it also has the biggest land area at 838,488 sq ft, for an en bloc sale site. The maximum potential gross floor area of almost 2.35 million sq ft for the site - or about 1,800 apartments averaging 1,250 sq ft - means that a new development on the site would be the biggest condo development yet to be undertaken in Singapore, based on comments when the site was launched last month.

Source: The Business Times, 28 June 2007
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Alexandra as new alternative to CBD?
Alexandra is emerging as a strong alternative to the central business district (CBD) as banks continue to be attracted to the business hub there. Real estate company Mapletree, which developed Alexandra Business Hub, says that it is in 'serious negotiations' to sign on up to five more banks, chief operating officer Tan Boon Leong told BT yesterday.

One of the banks is asking for 550,000 sq ft and another for 350,000 sq ft. It recently signed up DBS, HSBC and an American bank looking to move some of their operations there. Mapletree says the average space banks are seeking is 100,000 to 150,000 sq ft. Mr Tan says that while banks had earlier shifted operations to various neighbourhoods, Alexandra is a ‘true alternative’ to the CBD because of its location - 10 minutes from the CBD and its links to major roads leading to expressways.

Prime office rents in Raffles Place have hit record levels, forcing companies to reconsider their space requirements and manage costs, Mr Tan says. According to a CB Richard Ellis report last month, office rents in Singapore are the fifth fastest growing globally. Office rent at its Alexandra hub is about ‘40 per cent lower’ than going rates in the CBD. While prime office space is said to be going for about $12 per sq ft, Mapletree is asking $7 psf for office space and $4-$4.50 psf for back room operations space.

While financial institutions have earlier shifted some operations to neighbourhoods such as Tampines and Changi, Mr Tan says that Alexandra is preferred because of its proximity to town. Also, even though Alexandra used to be an industrial area, Mr Tan says there is no ‘image’ problem. ‘When banks see that other banks are coming, they take a second look,’ he said.

Based on demand so far, Mr Tan says he expects 50 to 60 per cent of the new leasable area of 1.6 million sq ft to be taken up by financial institutions. Oil and gas, telecoms and chemical companies may take up another 20 to 30 per cent, while the remaining space may be taken up by companies which offer support services such as IT.

Mapletree expects to have pre-commitment of 40 per cent of the new space by the first quarter next year. Mr Tan says multinational companies need more space in Singapore to expand and consolidate their regional presence affordably, which is what Alexandra Hub offers. The complex, which cost Mapletree $405 million to build, includes amenities catering for expatriates such as childcare facilities, a gym with a swimming pool, coffee outlets, laundry and garden landscape.

Source: The Business Times, 28 June 2007
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9 industrial sites out for tender
The government yesterday said that nine sites are on offer under its industrial land sales programme for the second half of this year - three more than the sites it put on the market for the first half of 2007. The nine sites will together give about 3.74 million square feet of industrial space, up from the 2.79 million sq ft offered in the first half of the year.

However, the increase in the space offered under the industrial land sales programme is not as great as that seen for residential space, market observers said. The number of residential sites on offer through the confirmed list increased from two to eight from the first half of 2007 to the second half. ‘This could indicate that the government may see that the industrial property market is fairly stable with sufficient supply in the short and medium term,’ said Nicholas Mak, Knight Frank’s head of consultancy and research.

As with the first half of the year, just two industrial sites - this time, a 5.1 ha site in Sin Ming Lane and a 2.1 ha site in Jalan Tepong - will be offered under the confirmed list. Both sites are expected to see strong interest. The Sin Ming Lane plot has the potential to yield a large gross floor area of about 1.37 million sq ft. Potential bidders include car companies and/or workshops because of nearby vehicle inspection centres, said Li Hiaw Ho, executive director for research at CB Richard Ellis (CBRE). ‘The unit price for this plot might be lower as a result of the large land area,’ Mr Li said.

The Jalan Tepong site, on the other hand, is interesting because it has a lease of about 23 years, shorter than the usual tenure of 30 or 60 years. The tenure for the site is only until 2030 to dovetail with future developments in that area. The plot might also fetch a lower price because of the unusual tenure, Mr Li said. ‘Some fresh food companies might bid for the site as food manufacturing is permitted and the site is near to Jurong Port.’

The new reserve list has seven sites, three more than the previous reserve list. The seven sites can yield a total maximum gross floor area of 2.05 million sq ft, less than the 2.40 million sq ft that the four sites on the previous reserve list could yield. Despite the smaller floor area, the reserve list for the second half seems to be offering a variety of locations, Mr Mak said.
The take-up for factory space was 7.64 million sq ft in 2006 and 1.39 million sq ft in the first quarter of 2007. The market should therefore be able to absorb the gross floor area that can potentially come from the sites on the current reserve list, observers said. CBRE said average rents for all industrial space increased in the second quarter of 2007, with high-tech space rising the fastest.

Average rents for high-tech space rose 11.9 per cent from $2.10 per square foot (psf) in the first quarter to $2.35 psf in Q2 - the highest quarterly increase in the past five years. ‘The limited supply of office space coupled with rising rents encouraged many qualifying companies to look to high-tech properties to meet their needs,’ CBRE said. ‘Further rent increases for high-tech space during the second half of the year is expected as demand for offices is unlikely to let up while supply of office space will still remain tight.’

Source: The Business Times, 28 June 2007
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