Asia office rents rising fastest in Beijing, Jakarta
Reuters, 03/08/2011
OFFICE rents in Beijing and Jakarta rose about 15 per cent in the second quarter from the previous three months, the fastest among 27 Asian markets, property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle said, as tight supply and strong corporate growth lifted prices.
Rents also rose in 13 other cities in the quarter, but was unchanged or fell slightly in the other markets. Tokyo, for instance, saw a 0.4 per cent drop in prices following its tsunami and nuclear crisis, the consultant said in a quarterly report.
Looking ahead, it predicted that office rents could cool towards the year-end as multinational firms, especially financial ones, cut costs on a slowing global economy, said Jeremy Sheldon, JLL's head of markets in Asia Pacific.
Across the region, the average quarterly growth in capital values moderated to 2.4 per cent in the April-June period, down from an increase of 3.1 per cent in the three months ending March, the consultant said.
'Pricing growth and transaction volumes are starting to stabilise which is not necessarily a bad thing, after the huge volatility in the past three to four years,' said Stuart Crow, JLL's head of capital markets for the region.
The consultant estimated office rents and capital values may climb up to 45 per cent across Asia this year as strong economic fundamentals and investor confidence help the region's real estate markets to weather uncertainty in the world economy.