Asia-Pacific prime office rents rise for first time since pandemic
Knight Frank’s Asia-Pacific Prime Office Rental Index saw a 0.3% quarter-on-quarter increase, the first uptick since Q3 2019, before the start of the pandemic. Overall vacancy remains elevated at 12.8%, but office rents are likely to have bottomed out, thanks to improving business sentiments and a gradual and more sustainable return to workplaces, especially among big tech occupiers taking advantage of lower rents to move into high-quality CBD office spaces.
While conditions remain tentative due to the Omicron variant, we expect rents to continue stabilising into 2022 with more markets in the region reaching an inflexion point in the rental downcycle. As occupiers continually evolve their space strategies on the adoption of hybrid working styles, 2022 will be a year of reset and experimentation. However, this does not mean less demand for office spaces. We expect leasing activity to strengthen into 2022, with demand underpinned by the integration of flexible space solutions and a pivot to quality spaces that emphasises wellness and employee experience.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Global Data Center Market Comparison
Explore a unique way to assess and score 55 global primary and emerging data center markets utilizing 13 criteria.
Explore a unique way to assess and score 55 global primary and emerging data center markets utilizing 13 criteria.
The last two years have been remarkable in many ways. Industries across the board have been confronted with change and disruption—and the data center industry has been no exception. In early 2020, many businesses faced a sudden and heightened need for greater cloud technology to connect a dispersed workforce and enable people to do their jobs in a work-from-home environment. The trend continued in 2021 as cloud migration accelerated, the need for data centers continued to grow and as major data-producing platforms—hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba, Apple and others—spread their data center footprints throughout the world. Today, the question is no longer whether the largest hyperscale data center users will expand to new regions each year, but how many will expand and how quickly.
It’s in this time of both great demand and prolific expansion—but also amidst an increasing focus on sustainability in parts of the world—that we publish this third annual edition of Cushman & Wakefield’s Global Data Center Market Comparison.
Overall office gross absorption across the top six cities was at about 33 million sq feet, 10% higher compared to 2020. Pan-India absorption during the year surpassed the annual gross absorption during 2016-2018 by 7%, signalling a strong revival in occupier confidence.
