Although office rents increased last quarter, the vacancy rate for upscale offices declined, as demand for upscale space remained healthy amid a stable economy, international property agency Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (JLL) said yesterday.
Vacancy rates for grade-A offices shed two percentage points, decreasing to 8 percent in the April-to-June period, while rents increased slightly to NT$2,683 per ping (3.3m2), the agency’s quarterly report showed.
Take-up rates rose to a record high of 15,806 ping, propelled by upgrade demand from financial, technology and professional consultancy firms and e-commerce operators, JLL associate market director Brian Liu (劉建宇) told a media briefing.
The showing was also related to corporate measures designed to enhance physical working environments and enhance coordination, communication and operations by moving business units into the same headquarters building.
The completion of new office buildings, such as Taipei Nan Shan Plaza (台北南山廣場) in the prime Xinyi District (信義), helped attract corporate tenants such as Deloitte & Touche Taiwan, Liu said.
Rents for Taipei Nan Shan Plaza average NT$4,000 per ping, with rates climbing to NT$5,000 per ping for the top floors, Liu added.
For the first half of the year, take-ups totaled 23,325 ping, a record high, the report said.
Three new office buildings with a total floor space of 27,300 ping are scheduled to enter the market by the end of the year and have attracted the interest of potential tenants, Liu said, referring to United Daily News Group’s former headquarters building on Zhongxiao E Road and Cathay Real Estate Development Co’s (國泰建設) building on Mingsheng E Road.
There is no new supply beyond that and landlords might raise rents if demand holds strong, JLL Taiwan managing director Tony Chao (趙正義) said.
The commercial property market is less exciting, because investors have remained on the sidelines, leaving self-occupancy to drive more than 90 percent of the transactions, Chao said.
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