Vacancy rate for Grade-A offices up to 5.1% in December

However, vacancy tightened in highly-sought after Central and Hong Kong East.

Overall vacancy rates for Grade-A offices edged up marginally to 5.1% in December from last month’s 4.8%, according to JLL’s Property Market Monitor. 

Central continued to post the tightest vacancy rate at 1.7% in December as rents grew a further 0.3% due to sustained office space demand from PRC firms.

As more companies decentralise and turn east to avoid high Central office rents, vacancy rates for Hong Kong East dipped to 3.9% as rents rose 0.8% MoM, outperforming all other major submarkets.

Vacancy rates for Tsimshatsui also dipped 2.2%.

On the other hand, vacancy in Wanchai/Causeway Bay and Kowloon East rose to 3% and 12.5% respectively.

“Mainland companies are expected to remain active and be the key driver in Central’s office demand in 2018. Rents in most of the city’s major office submarkets are expected to edge higher in 2018 with Central leading the way, growing by up to 5% in 2018,” said JLL Head of Markets Alex Barnes.

Photo from Wpcpey - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0