Taipei Times
Date: Oct 19, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

Vacancy rates for grade-A offices edged up, while rental rates declined sequentially last quarter, as firms turned cautious about operating costs and landlords adjusted terms to attract tenants, international property broker Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Inc said yesterday.

The leasing market might consolidate this quarter due to continued demand from mobile game and telecommunications service providers, while low-cost carrier V Air (威航) is due to halt operations, the consultancy said.

Vacancy rates rose 0.2 percentage point to 10 percent for upscale offices during the July-to-September period, while rents slid 0.1 percent to NT$2,649 per ping (3.3m2), according to JLL, the nation’s largest broker by market share.

“Conservative spending on the part of firms drove the slowdown even though the leasing market was resilient in comparison with real-estate investment,” JLL associate market director Brian Liu (劉建宇) said by telephone.     [FULL  STORY]