Decline of prime office rents in Asia Pacific expected to decelerate in 2021

Knight Frank, the independent global property consultancy, has released its Asia-Pacific Prime Office Rental Index for Fourth Quarter 2020. The index saw a 0.8 percent quarter-on-quarter decrease and a 4.9 percent year-on-year decline, according to expectations, due to muted demand from occupiers and continued new supply additions across the region.

Results for fourth quarter 2020:

Of the 22 cities tracked by the index, 10 recorded either stable or increased rents in the past quarter, compared to eight in the previous quarter. The quarterly decline was led by Mumbai at -5.5 percent. However, sentiment is starting to improve with a resurgence of transactional activity, with 17.5 million square feet in volume done across eight major cities in India. Office markets in China showed further signs of strengthening, with average rents across tier 1 cities only falling 1 percent quarter-on-quarter, despite challenges of oversupply. With China’s econ