Singapore is World’s 3rd Most Expensive Flexible Office Location

Thanks to the pandemic, private desks appear to be the next big thing in office real estate. While landlords are scrambling to lure tenants back to their lofty towers, employees who have grown attached to remote work are finding joy in private office desks, which allow a dedicated space in a shared office location.

In Singapore, Southeast Asia’s financial hub that has gained notoriety for having sky-high office rents, the popularity of private office desks has pushed prices to one of the world’s highest. According to website listing platform Workthere, Singapore has the third-highest private office desk price in the world, clocking in an average of US$834 per month.

“The flexible market is now dominated by high-quality spaces because occupiers are focussed on cultivating an updated office strategy around a space employees want to be in, and in an environment that enhances their desired culture,” said Griffin Foley, Northeast Lead, Workthere Americas, in the report released on March 24, 2022.

"Similar to the Manhattan office market as a whole, there has been an undeniable flight to quality which has resulted in a shrunken set of options to choose from and ultimately higher asking rents."

Ashley Swan, executive director for commercial leasing at Savills Singapore said the market has seen a robust recovery in recent months amid the return of employees to their offices as well as Singapore’s increasing popularity among start-ups.

“As we wait for new centres to open progressively over the next few years, the market remains relatively tight with vacant seats being snapped up quickly. Delays in construction mean that this trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future,” Swan said.

New York has the costliest private office desk (US$961), followed by San Francisco (US$950). Completing the top five are London (US$803) and Berlin (US$800).

Meanwhile, Hong Kong, which has one of the priciest office markets in the world, is in seventh place, with an average price of US$793 per month.