INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING : THE BLURRING BETWEEN OFFICE AND INDUSTRIAL TENANTS

Abstract

The focus of this dissertation is to investigate the industrial restructuring phenomenon and its impacts in Singapore via quantitative and qualitative approach. The office floor area component within an industrial premise is used as an indicator to evaluate the extent of industrial restructuring. Empirical results show that changes in the office space component has a long term relationship with both land and labor price only for specific industrial sectors. Therefore, the variation in land and labor cost can serve as a prediction in the change of floor area usage within an industrial premise. It should also be noted that industry property types affected are mostly multi-tenanted flatted factories and high tech spaces. Furthermore, the field observation results revealed that tenants located within such industrial premises are more inclined towards service centric businesses rather than tangible goods productions. Also, the business units of Multi National Companies (MNC) located here in Singapore mainly consists of service and support functions rather than production purposes. The blurring of office and industrial users is hence intensified due to the increase of service-centric companies as well as having physical building specifications that are akin to office properties. It should be highlighted that the increase of office component as well as the emergence of more service-centric companies within industrial premises is a product of industrial restructuring. The profiles of the property tenants are pertinent to cater for its prospective tenants.