Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional and Singapore’s Temasek are mulling a sale of Marina One’s office and retail components, which market watchers expect to be put up for sale soon with a total asking price in the S$5 billion to S$6 billion range.

The mixed-use project’s developer, M+S, is understood to have appointed JLL and Eastdil Secured to advise it on the sale. About 1.88 million square feet (sq ft) of net lettable area of premium Grade A office space and 140,000 sq ft of retail space are expected to be put on the market.

M+S is a 60:40 joint venture between Khazanah Nasional and Temasek.

Marina One, an integrated development completed nearly a decade ago, is on a site with 99-year leasehold tenure from Jul 1, 2011, leaving a balance of about 84.5 years.

When contacted, M+S said: “We decline to comment on market speculation.”

Investment sentiment is improving for premium Grade A office space in Singapore’s Central Business District (CBD), on the back of tighter supply and shrinking vacancies.

Most property consultancy groups predict that CBD Grade A office rents will appreciate at a faster clip in 2026 than in 2025.

At Marina One, the offices are in the East and West towers, which have 30 storeys each. The retail space is across four levels in the development, which includes the 1,042-unit Marina One Residences, located in two 34-storey towers.

Market observers noted that the lump-sum price of up to S$6 billion for Marina One’s office and retail components is chunky, and it could be challenging to find a buyer to take up the entire office and retail space.

The biggest single-asset property investment deal in Singapore – excluding related-party transactions – is the S$3.4 billion sale of Asia Square Tower 1 to Qatar Investment Authority in 2016, according to Cushman & Wakefield Research.

M+S may be prepared to sell Marina One’s offices and retail space separately.

There is also a possibility of the development’s office space being made available for sale in smaller bundles, given that it is already subdivided into three strata units, based on written permission granted by the Urban Redevelopment Authority for strata subdivision in 2018.

One of the three office strata units is understood to comprise levels 25 to 30 of both the East and West towers. Most of the office floors in each tower range from about 34,000 sq ft to 43,500 sq ft.

At levels 28 and 29, the two towers are joined, resulting in each of these two “super floors” having about 104,000 sq ft of offices. Level 28 is leased to Julius Baer.

Level 29 is part of the roughly 400,000 sq ft in Marina One currently occupied by Meta, after the tech giant earlier gave up about 114,000 sq ft in the complex upon lease renewal.

The other major office tenants in the development include PwC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Singlife. BNY and ANZ will be moving into Marina One in the coming months.

Marina One’s retail space is subdivided into 46 strata units. The retail tenants include a Cold Storage supermarket, Virgin Active, Smeg, Majestic Restaurant, 1855 The Bottle Shop and Luckin Coffee.

M+S was set up in 2011 to develop two projects in Singapore as part of a historic land-swop deal between Singapore and Malaysia.

Three plots of former Malayan Railway land and three additional plots in Bukit Timah were exchanged for four land parcels in the Marina Bay area and two parcels in the Beach Road/Rochor Road/Ophir Road locale.

The land swop gave rise to the iconic Marina One and Duo projects in the respective areas. Both developments have office, retail and residential components.

In 2019, M+S announced the sale of Duo’s office and retail space for nearly S$1.58 billion to Allianz Real Estate (now known as Pimco Prime Real Estate) and Gaw Capital Partners, and the sale of the hotel component, Andaz Singapore, to Hoi Hup Realty for S$475 million.