Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    INCREASING demand from Shenzhen’s financial services sector has led to a sharp drop in vacancy rate in the city’s office market and a jump in rent for top-grade offices in some key areas in the previous quarter.

    A bullish stock market in previous months of the year prompted a large number of securities brokerages, fund management firms and investment companies in Shenzhen to expand their office areas or relocate to new top-grade offices in the city’s central business district (CBD) in the second quarter this year, resulting in a 2.1-percentage-point drop in the vacancy rate, according to a report released Thursday by Jones Lang LaSalle’s Shenzhen division.

    There was no new supply of grade-A offices in the second quarter, and the total supply of such offices remained at 3.33 million sqms. The vacancy rate was down to 4.6 percent after 72,000 sqms of grade-A offices were rented, the real estate services firm said.

    Rent for top-grade offices in Futian District remained the highest, but the preferential policies offered by Qianhai are drawing a growing number of firms to relocate there. By the end of June, over 35,000 firms have registered in Qianhai, 42 percent more than at the beginning of the year.

    As a result, rent for grade-A offices in Nanshan District rose 10 percent in the second quarter, exceeding the growth rate of such offices in Futian — 1.7 percent — for the first time in history.

    Average rent for top-grade offices in Shenzhen rose 2.2 percent to 262 yuan (US$31) per square meter in the second quarter.

    The volatile stock market may exert greater influence on smaller brokers and may lead to a slow demand for offices among them, but that won’t have too much pressure on the vacancy rate of grade-A offices in the city since Qianhai is expected to attract more firms to set up a presence there. Moreover, the completion of 200,000 sqms of top-grade offices have been postponed until next year, so the vacancy rate will hover around 6 to 8 percent for the remaining of the year, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s Shenzhen branch.