As the local economy bounces back, Guangzhou’s Grade-A office rental market continued to warm up with net absorption growing steadily in Q3, according to Savills, a global property agent.

The financial and new media sectors contributed to most of the growth due to Guangzhou’s recent advantageous policies and planning to boost the development of the financial and e-commerce industries. Meanwhile, the city also saw new demand from traditional manufacturers as they seek to expand online businesses.

As Guangzhou continues to foster e-commerce businesses, rental demand from financial and TMT industries is expected to remain stable.

Affected by the pandemic and the new office space supplies, the vacancy rate increased 1.1 percent to 7.6 percent citywide. Investment interest from domestic enterprises is expected to grow as more than 300-thousand square meter new supplies are scheduled to launch in Pazhou and the International Financial Town in Q4.

“We saw foreign-funded companies suspended their decisions to expand into the Guangzhou office market in Q1 and Q2 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As the travel restrictions relaxed, more staff members from overseas headquarters started coming back to Guangzhou and reopening their projects in Q3. They are exploring new opportunities in the market as more new supplies are launched,” said Sam Lai, Senior Director and Head of Commercial of Savills South China.