Central Grade A office market likely to pick up further in H2

This is thanks to rents that are expected to drop in the next 12 months.

The Grade A office market in Central is expected to further improve in the second half (H2)of the year as rents are expected to decline in the next 12 months, JLL reported.

It added this will also be driven by demand, which will likely remain strong toward 2023.

“The district has attracted banking and financial institutions who have higher affordability to take the opportunity to leased office space, which boosted the leasing transactions and led Central to outperform the market,” Paul Yien, head of Landlord Representative at JLL in Hong Kong said.

“It will attract more PRC firms to expand into Hong Kong and set up new offices if the border between Hong Kong and mainland China and Macau reopens in H2 of this year and this will support the office leasing market as a result.”

The Grade A office leasing market in Central improved in the first half of 2021 as it outperformed major core commercial districts.

Gross leasing volume in Central, based on JLL’s data, recorded a 39.4% quarter-on-quarter and 69.1% year-on-year increase in the second quarter of 2021.

The vacancy rate also retreated from 7.5% at end-April to 7.4% as of end-June.