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NEXT month, Singapore’s largest offering of new strata-titled office space in at least a decade will be up for sale.

Far East Organization has 121 strata-titled office units or 160,000 sq ft of office space ready for sale at Central, its $500 million 99-year leasehold mixed project on the Singapore River, above Clarke Quay MRT station.

Its chief operating officer of property sales, Mr Chia Boon Kuah, told The Straits Times that it will launch the 600 to 1,500 sq ft office units after Chinese New Year, possibly in mid-February.

‘It must be 10 years or more since any noteworthy strata-titled space was launched,’ said property consultancy CB Richard Ellis’ Mr Moray Armstrong.

Suntec City, which started selling its space in 1995, was the most recent, he said. ‘There hasn’t been a great number of precedents. Springleaf Tower came after Suntec. It was technically strata-titled but it ended up as a leasing project because of market conditions then.’

Now, the outlook for office rents looks good, as they look set to strengthen further this year amid an improving economy, limited supply of office space, and demand from the banking and finance sector, consultants said.

Indeed, Mr Chia lets on that Far East intends to keep two floors or 18,000 sq ft of Central’s 25-storey office tower for service offices. Since 1998, it has operated service offices at Central Square in Havelock Road.

Central’s strata-titled units, which are meant for sale, will cost between $1,300 and $1,500 per sq ft (psf), said Mr Chia. He said Far East is in talks with a few foreign banks. The developer has already achieved an average price of nearly $1,300 psf for the 70 per cent of its 120 individual studio offices at Central that it has sold.

The studio offices range from 646 to 1,216 sq ft and - like the 227 small office, home office (SoHo) units and the strata-titled units - feature 4.5m-high ceilings.

Central, which now has 17 SoHo units left, comprises a 25-storey tower for studio offices or what Far East terms ‘new age offices’, another 25-storey office tower with floor plates of 9,000 to 15,000 sq ft, two shorter SoHo towers and a five-storey retail podium.

Far East tends to differ from most office developers in that it tends to build office space for sale, as opposed to leasing, sources said.

While most companies prefer to lease space, some small to medium-sized operators will want to own their space, they said.

Strata-titled buildings, however, face a possible eroding of their value and rents in the long run, if owners are not interested in issues such as maintenance, said Ms Tang Wei Leng, DTZ Debenham Tie Leung director.

Strata-titled office space can be found in buildings such as the freehold John Hancock Tower, 999-year Peninsula Plaza, 99-year leasehold Shenton House, High Street Centre and UIC Building. Meanwhile, plans to keep four to five floors of Central for Far East’s headquarters remain unchanged, said Mr Chia.

Source : Straits Times - 23 Jan 2006