china briefings

"Despite the challenges of the current market, demand for high-quality, well-located serviced apartments remains strong. The future of the rental housing sector will depend on operators’ ability to innovate and adapt quickly to shifting market dynamics."

"In Q1/2025, the market supply has grown significantly while the demand picked up. The citywide average rents continued to decline. With over 200,000 sqm expected in the pipeline in Q2/2025, the vacancy rate remain under pressure, making it difficult to reverse the rents’ declining trend in the near term."

"With a diminishing number of new projects, ongoing adjustments and renovations of existing developments have consistently introduced fresh dynamics to the market. Although Chengdu’s total retail sales experienced slow growth, more robust incentive policies have driven increased consumption of electronic products and appliances, contributing to a stable average vacancy rate across citywide shopping malls."

"The investment market isbeginning to show signs ofre-engagement—notthrough broad-basedrecovery, but throughselective activity focusedon high-quality assets,underpinned by policyeasing and clearer pricingsignals."

"While constantly remodelling leasing strategies has become almost mandatory to overcome the changing retail market, the light before dawn of increase in spending propensity and recovery of market confidence can be expected, as boosting consumption and expanding domestic demand will be one of top priorities for China’s economy in 2025."

"The emerging retail sectors such as ACGN have catalysed new consumption demand and that brings about more opportunities for shopping centres to diversify brand-mix in the next few years."

"Abundant policy support since 2023 and the establishment of an efficient and complete industrial system helped attract a growing number of new quality productivity businesses to set up in Shenzhen. This has generated a significant increase in leasing demand for offices and supported the quarterly net take-up growth throughout the year."

"Beijing retail market welcomed six new projects in Q4/2024, whilst several existing projects started renovation, which brought new development momentum into the market. Fourteen retail projects were launched throughout 2024, and consumption-promoting activities were also rolled out year-round, actively innovating and breaking traditional boundaries to diversify business formats, aiming to attract footfalls and drive consumption growth."

"As tenant expectations continue to evolve, serviced apartments with outdated facilities are increasingly struggling to remain competitive. Upgrading both physical amenities and technological services is now crucial for operators to meet market demands, preserve asset value, and stay ahead of the competition."

"A considerable amount of purchasing demand for residential properties in Guangzhou was injected into the market during Q4/2024 primarily owing to the lift of the Home Purchase Restrictions (HPRs) and seasonality issues since September 2024. The total sales volume has exceeded two million sqm for the first time since Q1/2022."