Single-landlord buildings dominate, making up over 83% of nationwide stock. Most of them are gleaming towers in the CBD, where prestigious addresses and transport connectivity remain key drivers of occupier demand, especially among global firms.
Singapore’s office market has been driven by occupiers’ needs, gradually evolving over the decades in terms of functions and offerings. The first high-rise office building in Singapore — the Asia Insurance Building (now Ascott Raffles Place Singapore) — was erected in 1954, and held the title of the city-state’s tallest for over a decade until the completion of OUB Centre (now One Raffles Place Tower 1) in the 1980s.
Subsequently, the development of several strata-titled buildings revolutionised the concept of office ownership in Singapore — with some of the earliest ones being International Plaza, Shenton House, High Street Centre and The Plaza. They introduced a new model that offered individuals the opportunity to possess and manage office spaces instead of leasing them from landlords.
Operational flexibility was an added bonus.
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In parallel, the adaptive reuse of shophouses was encouraged; such spaces could be used as offices, offering an alternative ownership model. Often in duplex formats, these became the default choice of studios, design firms and creative agencies — challenging the conventional CBD office model by prioritising character, location and lifestyle.
Enhancing working environments
Maximising net lettable area was once the focus of developers with the advent of single-landlord buildings. Design concepts such as a welcome sense of arrival, community spaces or wellness amenities were secondary considerations.
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But this mindset began to shift from the 1990s with the expansion of the Downtown Core, with The Gateway (1990), Republic Plaza (1995), One Raffles Quay (2007), Ocean Financial Centre (2011) and Marina Bay Financial Centre (2012) re-drawing the skyline.
A new wave of typologies aimed at small- and medium-sized enterprises and mobile teams followed. Demand kicked in for co-working spaces, coinciding with the rise of the start-up ecosystem and flexibility over long-term leases. Operators such as The Working Capital (2015), The Executive Centre (2016) and WeWork (2018) dominated that landscape, repositioning shophouses, secondary office stock and other niche asset classes as creative and unique community-driven workplaces.
Soon after, post-pandemic office development placed greater emphasis on shared amenities, greenery and experience-led design. These reflect the changing needs of Singapore residents, who are calling for comforting and socially engaging environments, as highlighted in the Knight Frank-Ipsos Quality of Life (QoL) Report 2025.
Developments like CapitaSpring, business park building Eclipse (formerly Sandcrawler), 55 Market Street, Guoco Midtown and IOI Central Boulevard reflect a broader shift towards wellness and placemaking, with features ranging from shared workspaces and event areas to landscaped sky gardens.
IOI Central Boulevard Towers boasts 120,000 sq ft of green landscaping, including the largest urban sky park in Marina Bay, with retail and dining options and connectivity to the MRT
While older strata office developments typically lacked such communal spaces due to cost and ownership constraints, these newer strata projects signalled a progressive transformation of the segment.
Opening doors to unconventionality
This evolution is opening doors to more unconventional strata commercial offerings. Recent and upcoming design-led developments have unlocked newer typologies.
8 Robinson Road (2023) and Cecil Place (2025) are the latest strata office additions to the Tanjong Pagar precinct, while One Sophia — strategically located at the crossroads of the Civic and Cultural District and Orchard Road — offers options for those looking to explore prime strata office investment opportunities.
Newly launched, freehold Grade-A office space Cecil Place is a 15-storey building with 30 premium strata units in the heart of the CBD Growth Corridor
Located just a 10-minute drive away, The Golden Mile (TGM) will open the doors to its “modern shophouses in the sky” — 76 units that blend traditional shophouses with modern workspaces — come 2028. The project is an adaptive reuse and refurbishment of the original Golden Mile Complex, a Brutalist icon developed in the 1960s.
Designed with modern comfort and luxury in mind, it is an integration of retail amenities, proximity to green landscaping and communal space, while overlooking the vast waterfront.
Teoh Hai Pin, director of DP Architects, says: “The overall concept of loft offices was a creative solution to overcome the limitations of the existing structure. The low floor-to-floor height no longer meets modern standards and expectations.”
The solution? Decanting existing floor slabs on alternate floors to create double-volume office spaces spanning 136 to 250 sqm, offering a new, modern workplace typology for compact offices “while respecting the integrity of the building’s stepped façade — a critical marker of its identity”.
Roohid Novinrooz of Conexus Studio applauds the approach. “While I wouldn’t say unconventional offices are a universal trend, there is a market segment that values character and history over pure functionality,” says the director of client strategy at the award-winning interior design practice specialising in workplaces.
“Not everything has to be about sheltered walkways to the MRT or ticking boxes like Green Mark certification,” he adds. “TGM’s approach reflects a real appreciation for being in a building with character. Certain businesses genuinely value being in a different kind of space, because it says something about who they are [and] what their brand stands for.”
Ryan Wong, managing director of real-time management software firm PTV Group, concurs. His company relocated from co-working space The Great Room to a three-storey shophouse along Duxton Road last year, signing a two-year lease with flexibility to expand. A team of 15 sales, marketing and finance professionals currently occupies two floors, with a view to expand to the third level when the business grows.
The move reflects PTV Group’s sustainability ethos. “Our office space embodies culture and heritage,” Wong notes, pointing to the value of repurposing older buildings and aligning with circular economy principles, while being surrounded by some of the city’s most distinctive architecture.
The space also offers “the right balance of size, affordability, and surrounding amenities of everyday dining options alongside higher-end offerings”, he adds. In addition, excellent access to Outram, Maxwell and Chinatown MRT Stations supports both work and team culture.
Office spaces must support diverse business needs
Novinrooz contends that office design has matured to the point where it can respond to different moods and sensibilities.
“As an industry, we’re doing a lot of things right,” he states. “Technology is better, materials are better, lighting is more thoughtful. This shift is important. We’ve moved away from gimmicks and towards spaces that are genuinely user-friendly. However, we haven’t fully reached that point where you walk into an office and immediately feel transformed. That emotional alignment is still something we’re working towards.”
Unconventional offices are not without trade-offs; they involve higher costs, maintenance complexity and potential leasing-related issues. Decisions to occupy such spaces are deliberate choices, influenced by how such spaces offer what traditional environments cannot — a stronger sense of inclusivity, identity and connection.
The increasing proliferation of unconventional spaces reflects the maturity of the office market; traditional office towers will remain a core part but may lose their shine as the best workplace for organisations if only space optimisation and landlord-only objectives are prioritised.
As occupier needs shift towards well-being, inclusivity and talent retention, office design must evolve to support these objectives. We believe the next chapter of Singapore’s office market will not be defined by typology, but intentionality — defined by how well space is designed to respond to people, culture and long-term value. Unconventional offices are not a passing trend, but a signal of where the market is heading.
Alice Tan is head of consultancy and Chalene Liu is assistant manager, consultancy, at Knight Frank Singapore
