RENTALS for office space in Singapore, which shot to a high of 56.1 per cent last year, have started coming down.

They rose at a slower pace of 10.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2007, compared to 14.8 per cent the previous quarter, latest statistics released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday showed.

For instance, the median rental for office space in the core business areas such as in the downtown and Orchard road areas, was $12.18 per sq foot per month (psf pm) between last October and Deceber, against $10.95 psf pm from July to September.

Outside of the prime office areas where 80 per cent of all office space is located, rental was down less sharply - from $5.68 psf pm to $5.14 psf pm.

But prices of office space held steady and rose 8 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared with 8.1 per cent in Q3.

For the whole of 2007, office space prices went up by 32.6 per cent.

There was a total supply of about 1.43 million sq metres of office space in the pipeline at the end of December.

Shop space rentals plateaus off

Rentals for shop space all but stagnated during the last quarter - they went up marginally by 0.6 per cent after soaring to a high of 8.1 per cent the previous quarter.

For the year, overall rentals were up 18.2 per cent.