Ravi Chandran
Savills Singapore brokered the sale of Suntec City office portfolio for $197 Million
Savills Singapore said the Suntec City office portfolio comprises one floor at Suntec Tower 1 and five floors at Suntec Tower 2, a total NLA of approx. 78,491 sq ft.
Designed as a ‘’City within a City’’, Suntec City is one of the largest integrated developments in Singapore, consisting of a shopping mall, world-class exhibition centre and five Grade-A office towers. The investment-grade office towers have been designed with no internal columns to provide maximum design efficiency. The office layout is cleverly designed around a central service core which allows for maximum views and natural light.
The offices at Suntec City are currently undergoing asset enhancement works which include upgrading of the main entrance lobby, reception and concierge area, and modernising lift lobbies and new washrooms for every office floor. The phased upgrading works are expected to be completed by Q1 2022 and will continue to strengthen value propositions to the office floors .
Suntec City office portfolio for sale are rare
With a limited supply of quality office stock available for sale in the market, strata office opportunities of such scale are rare and sought after by investors.
Jeremy Lake, Managng Director, Investment Sales & Capital Markets, said: “ The outlook for the office investment market is compelling for investors. Rents are expected to start rising again in 2H 2021 and prices have already started to firm up in anticipation of the rental recovery. We are talking to a growing number of investors who are keen to buy offices in Singapore now that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the office market ”.
Strata offices in Suntec City are highly sought after due to the asset’s convenient location, column-free layout, wide spectrum of amenities at its doorstep and its panoramic views of the city skyline, Marina Bay and the Singapore Sports Hub.
And given Suntec’s stellar reputation as a Grade A commercial development that consistently attracts the very best MNCs to set up shop, investors are always on the look out to acquire such prime assets.
Mr Paul Ho, chief Mortgage Officer at iCompareLoan, said: “the sale of the Suntec City office portfolio brokered by Savills Singapore is concluded at a time when sales of offices in Suntec City are robust. There have been at least five transactions recently concluded in Tower 1. One of the latest unit sold on the 37th storey transacted at S$2,890 psf in May last year, while another unit on the 33rd storey in Tower 2 also transacted at a high of S$3,209 psf earlier in January 2020.”
Suntec City is a fully integrated mixed development with 5 towers of Grade A offices, a mega retail podium which spans across the towers and houses a world-class convention and exhibition centre located just off Nicoll Highway and the East Coast Parkway (ECP). Its prominent location is extremely accessible, with direct sheltered access to the Promenade, Esplanade and City Hall MRT Stations.
Suntec City is a major mixed-use development located in Marina Centre, a subzone of the Downtown Core in Singapore, which combines a shopping mall, office buildings, and a convention centre. Construction began on 18 January 1992 (with earthworks) followed by full completion and opening on 22 July 1997.
Suntec City was designed by Tsao & McKown Architects with emphasis on Chinese feng shui. The five buildings and the convention center are arranged so that they look like a left hand when viewed aerially. The Fountain of Wealth appears like a golden ring in the palm of the hand. As the fountain is made of bronze, it is believed that the balance of metal and water paves the way for success. Further, the specially selected Chinese name, 新达, means “new achievement”.
The Suntec office towers comprise five buildings named Towers One through Five with four containing 45 stories and one 18 stories. The latter has 28,000 square feet of net lettable floor area on each floor while the 45-storey towers consist of floor plates ranging from 10,000 to 14,000 square feet. In total, there are about 2.3 million square feet of office space. Tower One to Four is 45-storey representing the 4 fingers and Tower 5 is 18-storey representing the thumb.
Suntec City Office Towers houses a number of foreign diplomatic/non-diplomatic missions that are resident in Singapore. Embassy of Spain on the 39th floor of Tower 1, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office on the 34th floor of Tower 2, Embassy of Rwanda on the 14th floor of Tower 3, Embassy of Chile on the 24th floor of Tower 3, Embassy of Qatar on the 41st floor of Tower 3, and the Taiwan Trade Center on the 9th floor of Tower 4.
- The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) mentioned Suntec City as one of the largest commercial developments in Singapore.
- Suntec City was awarded two FIABCI Prix d’ Excellence awards for excellence in all aspects of real estate development (Overall winner and Commercial / Retail winner) in 1999. Suntec has claimed other prizes, including the 1998 Tourism Award from the Singapore Tourism Board.
- Suntec City has been featured three times on The Amazing Race reality television show. Once on the US version Season 3 and twice on the Asian version in both Season 1 and Season 2.
