Beijing’s Grade A office market is picking up, with rents and volumes rising hand-in-hand in Q3/2021. The recovery from the impact of COVID-19 has been much faster than the market expected.

The first three quarters of the Beijing Grade-A office market in 2021 were marked by booming supply and demand in major submarkets, with new supply 1.7 times and net absorption 3.4 times of their annual equivalents of 2020, far exceeding early predictions.

DEMAND

The strong absorption momentum continued. With net absorption increasing three quarters in a row, the net take-up in the leasing market totalled 614,000 sqm, 3.4 times of the annual absorptions in 2020. Despite the strong supply influx, the citywide vacancy rate only inched up 1.6 ppts YoY to 16.7%.