【World Property Journal】Continued Social Unrest Pushes Hong Kong's Office Vacancies to Highest Levels in Years

According to JLL's Property Market Monitor for December 2019, as Hong Kong's office market continues to reel from the impacts of the local social movement and economic uncertainties, leasing across all business districts in Hong Kong have been subdued.
Notably, vacancy continued to rise in all of the core submarkets for office space in Central, Wanchai/Causeway Bay and Tsimshatsui.

The overall leasing market recorded a net withdrawal of 91,900 sq. ft, causing the vacancy rate to rise to 5.9% overall across Hong Kong. The trend of rental decline continued in November as the average monthly office rent dropped to HKD 73.9 per sq. ft, a 0.6% decline m-o-m. In Central, net take-up has remained negative every month since October 2018, with vacancy now reaching its highest point of 3.5% in more than four years. For 2019, in spite of softened demand for office space, JLL estimates an overall net absorption of more than 1 million sq. ft in Hong Kong.

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