Office space in Telok Ayer, Singapore

Telok Ayer Street was the original shoreline of Singapore. The name means bay water in Malay, and boats moored here until reclamation in the 1880s pushed the sea south to where Robinson Road now runs. Thian Hock Keng, the Hokkien temple at 158 Telok Ayer Street completed in 1842, once faced the water. Today the street is conserved shophouses with restaurants and cafes at street level, and the offices sit along Cross Street, Robinson Road and Cecil Street around it.

Cross Street Exchange was China Square Central until a S$38 million refurbishment in 2019, and its office tower stands over a retail podium that keeps the ground floor busy all day. 108 Robinson Road is a 1982 tower refurbished in 2023, and the JustCo centre inside opened in 2024 with an interior that borrows from the shophouses nearby. The Octagon at 105 Cecil Street is a 25 storey freehold building from 1982, two to three minutes from the station.

The centres we price also include 120 Robinson Road, among others. Tell us your team size and we will walk you through a few in one visit.

Telok Ayer station (DT18) is on the Downtown line and opened in December 2013. Exit A comes out on Cross Street beside Cross Street Exchange, and Exit B on Telok Ayer Street by the shophouses. Raffles Place station, on the North South and East West lines, is about a seven minute walk, and Tanjong Pagar station is about five minutes from the Robinson Road buildings.

The airport is about 40 minutes away, on the Downtown line to Expo with one change there for Changi.

Telok Ayer suits a small team that wants a central address. Rooms for one to ten people are the norm across the centres we price, and a team can start on desks and take a room in the same building later.

It suits a team that eats out. Amoy Street Food Centre, two storeys and 134 stalls, has served the office lunch crowd since 1983, and the shophouse streets carry restaurants and cafes in both directions.

It suits a team that meets clients in the financial district. Raffles Place is a seven minute walk, so a day of meetings costs no travel.

Price is worth checking before you come. The top centre here asks S$1,084 per person a month for a room for four, above the Raffles Place average, so the district is not automatically the lower priced option.

Lunch is the busy hour. Between twelve and two the hawker centre and the shophouse restaurants fill with office workers, and the known stalls queue. The other point is the train: Telok Ayer station has one line only, so commutes from the east or north usually mean a change at Bugis or Chinatown.

Telok Ayer sits where Chinatown meets the financial district, with Raffles Place to the north, Tanjong Pagar to the south and Chinatown proper across South Bridge Road. The figures below show what one person pays a month in a private office for four, averaged across the centres we price in each district.

Each district has its own character. Office space in Raffles Place puts you on the banking square itself, with towers of every age. Office space in Chinatown crosses South Bridge Road into the heart of the conservation district. Office space in Tanjong Pagar has the larger towers and the Duxton streets behind them. Every average above comes from Nextspace's own listings on 2 October 2026.

Knight Frank puts Grade A rent in the Shenton Way, Robinson Road and Tanjong Pagar precinct at S$10.40 to S$10.90 per square foot a month in Q3 2026, up 0.7 per cent on the quarter, with vacancy at 8.0 per cent and falling. Prime space in Raffles Place and Marina Bay averaged S$11.87 per square foot, up 1.5 per cent, with occupancy at 97.4 per cent. CBRE reports core CBD Grade A rents rising 2.0 per cent in the quarter, the fastest pace since 2022, so negotiating the room, the term and the fit out serves you better than waiting for rents to turn.

The centres we price in Telok Ayer ask between S$425 and S$1,084 per person a month for a team of four today. Tell us your team size and we will shortlist the buildings that fit it.