The space vacated in core CBD Grade-A office buildings has been backfilling steadily on the back of a flight to quality and location, with tenant movements seen at Marina One and Capital Square.

Singlife has leased 73,300 square feet in the East Tower of Marina One, a space vacated this year by fellow insurer Prudential, The Business Times understands.

The space comprises the entire levels six and seven of the 30-storey tower, and a smaller area of 3,900 sq ft on the ground floor suitable for use as a customer-service centre.

Singlife will exit two buildings in Shenton Way: SGX Centre 2 and OUE Downtown 2. Its leases in both buildings are said to end in the first half of 2026.

The fully-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Life occupies a total of about 94,000 sq ft in the two buildings. Market watchers said the space reduction brought about by the move is due to bigger floor plates (typically from 34,000 sq ft to 40,000 sq ft) at Marina One, a relatively newer project completed in 2017.

Moving to fewer floors on a bigger footprint enables a reduction in duplication of supporting services and common facilities such as pantries and lobby areas; it also facilitates collaboration across an occupier’s business.

“Tenant relocations in a flight to quality is representative of only Grade-A office stock.”

—ALAN CHEONG OF SAVILLS SINGAPORE

The space that Singlife is taking over from Prudential comes with an internal staircase between levels 6 and 7; the space has been fitted to a high standard and is in relatively new condition.

Prudential Singapore has moved its corporate office from Marina One to Labrador Tower at 1 Pasir Panjang Road, where it is being joined by most of the agency offices previously operating out of 51 Scotts Road.

Also understood to have inked a lease at Marina One’s East Tower is Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), which will occupy about 50,000 sq ft. Of this, 40,000 sq ft – the entire level 27 – was previously held by the landlord under expansion rights for Meta. The remaining 10,000 sq ft that BNY has leased on part of level 26 was given up by UK-based energy giant BP when it renewed its lease last year.

BP continues to occupy the rest of level 26, as well as the whole of level 25, adding up to 70,000 sq ft.

BNY will exit Millennia Tower, where it occupies 52,000 sq ft on three levels; its lease expires in the second quarter of 2026.

JLL is understood to have brokered both the Singlife and BNY leases at Marina One, but declined to comment.

Word in the market is that Meta gave up about 114,000 sq ft in the Marina One complex upon renewing its lease. This has left it with about 380,000 sq ft in the East and West Towers.

At the 16-storey Capital Square at 23 Church Street, some of the 180,000 sq ft vacated in H1 2025 from the relocations of Amazon and Morgan Stanley to IOI Central Boulevard Towers has been committed; advance negotiations are going on with several other parties.

Quantedge Capital is said to have leased the whole of level 15 at Capital Square. The 30,000 sq ft space is part of the ex-Morgan Stanley offices. For Quantedge, the space will be an expansion from the 10,000-plus sq ft on one and a half levels it occupies at Tokio Marine Centre in McCallum Street, which the group is expected to exit some time this year.

Audi Singapore will move its office to Capital Square next month, from level 8 of Aperia Office Tower 1 in Kallang Way. BT understands Audi will take up space on a floor in Capital Square formerly occupied by Amazon.

“A key reason Singapore’s office market is relatively stable is tight supply.”

—ANDREW TANGYE OF JLL

Bloomberg remains an anchor tenant in Capital Square, occupying just over 100,000 sq ft, including some space on level 14 (formerly occupied by Morgan Stanley), which it took over recently.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) is said to be in advanced stages of talks for a 30,000 sq ft floor in the low zone of Capital Square; this used to be part of Amazon’s space.

The Japanese bank’s front office is currently at CapitaSpring, where it is said to occupy over 60,000 sq ft. However, there is no space for expansion in the building, which is just across the road from Capital Square. SMBC has a back office in One@Changi City.

The Japanese bank used to be entirely housed in Centennial Tower in the Marina Centre area, until it undertook a split between its front and back offices a few years ago.

Singapore still a strong hub

Commenting on the flurry of relocations, Andrew Tangye, head of office leasing advisory for Singapore at JLL, said: “Despite all the global economic woes that are dampening sentiment, Singapore is still a strong regional business hub. Not only is there moderate organic growth, but creation of markets or opportunities to tap South-east Asia from Singapore.”

Moreover, stronger return-to-office mandates issued by many organisations to their employees will support demand for office space, he added. “A key underlying reason Singapore’s office market is relatively stable, compared with most others in the Asia-Pacific, is tight supply.”

Tangye noted: “The pipeline supply has various completion dates ranging from 2026 to 2029, and is mostly in different locations in the CBD and Orchard Road areas, but only a small proportion is in the traditional core CBD locations of Raffles Place and Marina Bay.”

Alan Cheong, executive director of research and consultancy at Savills Singapore, said: “Although we are seeing tenant relocations in a flight to quality and/or a flight to better location, this is representative of only the Grade-A CBD office stock. It does not represent the lower grades of office stock, which are seeing heightened vacancy.”

The gross effective average monthly rental value of overall CBD Grade A offices in Savills’ basket rose 0.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year to S$9.83 a square foot over the preceding quarter, after having gone up 0.6 per cent quarter on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2024.

However, given the uncertainties in the global economy, notwithstanding the de-escalation over the weekend of US-China trade tariff tensions, Cheong expects overall Singapore Grade-A CBD office rents to remain flat for the whole of 2025.

“As vacancy levels among most of the premium AAA-grade buildings are very low, they may still be able to eke out a 2 per cent full-year increase,” he added.