SINGAPORE office rentals will soften in early 2009, a year sooner than expected, after rents plateaued and vacancies rose in the third quarter of 2008 amid global financial turmoil, CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) said on Thursday.

'We had earlier anticipated rents would only soften beyond 2010. With the events of the past few weeks, we believe that the correction has been fast-forwarded to early 2009,' the property consultancy said in a report.

CBRE said vacancies for prime office space rose to 1.2 per cent in the July-September period, up from 0.6 per cent earlier this year, while rentals were static at S$16.10-S$18.80 per square foot per month compared to the first half of 2008.

Property prices and rents in Asia's financial centres of Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo are set to fall as banks scale back hiring and investments in the global financial turmoil.

The downturn could hit Singapore's top office landlords such as City Developments, CapitaCommercial Trust and Suntec REIT.