China Figures Q4 2021

OFFICE

New office supply reached 2.01 million sq. m. in Q4 2021, pushing up the full-year total to 6.42 million sq. m. Tier I cities contributed nearly 68% of new stock in 2021. Nationwide net absorption in the 18 major cities tracked by CBRE reached 7.43 million sq. m., a record high. Strong demand pushed down overall office vacancy by 2.4 ppts y-o-y to 21.3% at the end of 2021, while rents ended the year with a decline of 0.6% y-o-y.

RETAIL

Around 3.28 million sq. m. of new retail supply came on stream in Q4 2021, an increase of 13% q-o-q. Full-year supply reached 9.47 million sq. m., just below 2017’s record high volume. New projects are achieving high pre-commitment rates, with newly opened retail schemes this quarter recording overall occupancy of 93%. Nationwide vacancy fell by 0.2% q-o-q and 0.4% y-o-y to 7% at year’s end.

LOGISTICS

Strong supply and demand pushed up logistics net absorption to 2.3 million sq. m. Most demand was driven by short term requirements arising from the Double 11 shopping festival and the Winter Olympics. New logistics supply reached 2.8 million sq. m. while nationwide rents were flat on a quarterly basis.

INVESTMENT

China’s commercial real estate investment marked enjoyed another active quarter in Q4 2021, with investment volume reaching RMB 69.93 billion, an increase of 41% q-o-q and 6.8% y-o-y. Domestic investors accounted for RMB 50.4 billion of investment purchases in Q4 2021 and were also dominant over the full-year, acquiring a total of RMB 214.3 billion-worth of commercial real estate, an increase of 31% y-o-y.