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Hong Kong Island Grade-A office leasing demand remained soft in December amid weak economic conditions and the traditional offseason, but the overall market was buoyed by the professional sector, particularly the finance and legal service industries, which took up space in premium buildings in the CBD area. Two Chinese Mainland financial companies, the Bank of Dongguan and FountainVest Partners, leased an entire floor in Two IFC, which was previously occupied by Nomura Holdings. Medical companies also expanded their footprint in the core districts. A medical centre leased the entire top floor of 9 Queen’s Road Central to meet the increasing demand for healthcare and wellbeing. Given the weak economic situation, some tenants gave up more office space. With the current high vacancy rate of 7.8% on Hong Kong Island, we expect some landlords to soften their approach and be more willing to negotiate.

Kowloon Leasing activity in Kowloon continued to slow down in December. New lease transactions dropped by 20% on a monthly basis. Most of the leasing activity was in Kowloon East, at monthly rents below HK$25 per sq ft. While most industries have been largely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the logistics industry has remained strong and is one of the winners. Some logistics companies have taken advantage of this golden opportunity in the downbeat market to expand and upgrade their work environment and location. A recent notable example was the relocation of logistics giant DHL. It moved out of Megabox and took up a 91,015 sq ft space in the premium Grade A office International Trade Tower in Kwun Tong, making it the largest new lease acquisition in the market so far in 2020.After reviewing its office requirements, DHL chose to reconfigure its work pattern and adopt agile work practices to achieve workplace size optimisation. Curtailed by the pandemic and economic uncertainty, tenants will continue to be cost-sensitive and seek cost-effective options in Kowloon. Given the approach of the traditional festive season and the continuing unstable COVID-19 situation, we expect leasing demand to remain soft and the current low-level leasing volume to last until at least Lunar New Year.

In this January 2021 issue, we take a look at the latest updates on the local commercial real estate market as well as share an outlook for the sector in 2021.

• While the gradual return to office is expected this year, the office segment may not immediately return to its pre-pandemic vibrancy as the uncertain global business environment may continue to affect expansion decisions of businesses over the short to medium term. The office segment, however, is seen to benefit from the anticipated growth of the IT-BPM sector with the United States’ less protectionist policies under its new administration.
  
• The new COVID-19 variant has caused renewed anxiety and further stalls the resumption of international travel. It is also seen to discourage domestic travel as the country extends the more stringent community quarantine qualification in major urban areas and tourist destinations, thus, further blurring the tourism industry outlook.

Q4 2020 was a crucial quarter as it marked a recovery momentum with leasing indicators trending favourably compared to the previous couple of quarters. In a time of change with COVID upending the workplace playbook, the leasing trends and occupier strategies are undergoing a rapid shift and will have a bearing on market activity. Even as the COVID scenario was evolving and occupiers continued with evaluating their real estate portfolios and charting their space requirements, almost all the cities saw heightened levels of market activity with expansion driven demand making a comeback of sorts as well.  Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata have witnessed higher fresh leasing activity for expansion and consolidation during the last quarter of the year. This augurs well for the leasing momentum in 2021, which is likely to get broad-based across cities with introduction of a vaccine and a gradual return to the workplace providing the much-needed push to market activity. 

In this report, we analyse the Indian office markets’ performance in Q4 as well as during the full year of 2020.  

Although office leasing activity was generally more muted in Q4 compared to other quarters in the year, it was broadly similar to Q4/2019 levels.

• Demand for office space largely emanated from tenants looking for replacement space because of the need to move out of older buildings to be redeveloped, as well as tenants with office leases due for renewal.

• Owing to the uncertainties arising from the pandemic, tenants are continuing to adopt a wait-and-see approach and looking for clarity on trends to emerge on future workplace practices before deciding on future office space requirements.

• In Q4, the office market saw relatively significant leasing deals from technology companies. These companies are expected to continue expanding their presence in Singapore, which they deem as an attractive base due to its political stability, strategic position and strong economic fundamentals.

分层办公市场前景

•  2021 年，新加坡的分层办公楼市场和更大的办公楼市场预计仍将面临压力，因为在以不断发展的远程办公协议为特征的后大流行时代，企业将对办公空间的占用方式进行严格审查。因此，至少在今年的前六个月，交易量和价格可能会继续受到抑制。.
• 不过，随着写字楼用户对办公空间需求的合理化和规模化，小型企业等用户可能会转向业主自用的分层写字楼，将其作为租赁空间的可行替代方案。因此，2021 年下半年对分层办公楼，尤其是位于中心地段的分层办公楼的需求可能会有所改善。.

分层零售市场前景

• 展望未来，尽管已经分发了疫苗，但全球经济前景仍不明朗，其他国家仍会出现反复感染的情况。即使疫苗分发工作取得成功，预计新加坡分层零售单位的价格仍将保持疲软，由于缺乏游客和安全疏远措施仍在实施，预计将出现更多不良销售。.
• 预计对这些分层空间的需求将来自打算经营自己生意的业主，他们更愿意在分层零售开发项目的典型地点开店。与在同一地点的黄金购物中心租用零售空间相比，较低的成本往往是最大的诱因。.
• 因此，随着零售市场越来越倾向于采用更具体验性的场所营造战略，并将部分服务迁移到数字平台，地层零售店主也越来越有必要采取类似的方式，以便在不断变化的市场中求得生存。.