Rentals inch down in first quarter

Average rents in the Beijing office property segment declined by 8.3 percent q-o-q in the first three months of 2009, better than the market expectation, real estate services provider Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) said yesterday.

However, in the first quarter, the Beijing office market outperformed that of Hong Kong and Shanghai, which saw a sharp decrease of 20 percent and 15 percent respectively.

Julien Zhang, managing director at JLL's Beijing office, attributed the "modest" drop in Beijing office market rentals to domestic demand.