Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    THE average rent of Shenzhen’s grade-A office buildings saw a quarter-on-quarter decline of 1.2 percent in the second quarter of this year, while the vacancy rate stood at 13.3 percent, according to the international real estate agency Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

    “Many small and medium-sized companies moved out from Futian CBD and relocated their offices in Nanshan District, leading to the climbing vacancy rate of some office buildings in Futian CBD,” said Xia Chunyi, managing director of JLL Shenzhen.

    He said decentralized offices are getting more attention from tenants, meaning the single-centered market of high-end office space that used to revolve around Futian CBD is turning into a multi-centered market.

    According to Xia, although the office rent of some landmark buildings has gone up, the vacancy rate of grade-A office buildings was 13.3 percent in the second quarter, bringing down the average rent by 1.2 percent compared with the first quarter of this year.

    He said the grade-A office rent has declined for three successive quarters, and the vacancy rate is expected to continue growing before the end of this year, but it may not be higher than 20 percent.

    Commercial center KK One, with a floor area of 90,000 square meters, opened in Futian District in late May, driving up the city’s high-end retail property supply to 3.25 million square meters. Xu Bin, JLL’s retail property department’s head in Shenzhen, said the vacancy rate of retail space in Shenzhen dropped to 3.1 percent in the second quarter of this year.

    He said the rent of ground-floor shops will maintain stable growth in the coming year, and three new Metro lines to come into service this year will go through several existing commercial areas, making these areas more appealing to retailers.

    According to Xu, there will be about 470,000 square meters of new retail space in the second half of this year when several commercial projects complete construction. Xu said one-third of these projects will be high-end commercial centers based in Futian District, and the vacancy rate of retail space in Shenzhen is expected to reach 6 to 8 percent at the end of this year.