HK Land

HK Land / Office property: HK Land is seeking more commercial plots in Singapore as tenants seek to upgrade to new buildings. Banks like Barclays and Nomura have relocated regional and global functions to Singapore, ranked the asiest place to do business for 7 straight yrs by the World Bank. Among companies that are set to upgrade their offices are National Australia Bank and Swiss Reinsurance which plan to take space at Asia Square Tower 2 in the new business district. The bank will move from Suntec Tower Five while Swiss Re will relocate from One Raffles Place Tower 1. A lot of the new demand is also coming from energy and mining sectors such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Overall, mgt is confident of the Singapore office mkt. Notes the past 10 years has seen a migration of a lot of companies out of older stock, particularly the banks where they have more demanding needs that the older buildings cannot provide. HK Land will evaluate land purchases in Singapore’s prime office areas when the govt puts them on sale. Monthly prime office rents rose 4.2% qoq in the Jun quarter, indicating a more benign landscape for the sector.