THE slump in Hong Kong office sales and leasing is nearing its lowest point, according to a property specialist.
Alan Dalgleish, research manager for property consultants First Pacific Davies (FPD), expected the decline to slow in the second quarter of this year. Office rents and sales prices were now at their lowest since the second half of 1993, he said. The fall in office rents would be cut by half during the second quarter of this year, and the pace of falling sales prices will slow by about three-quarters.
Office rents would fall by about five per cent in the second quarter, Mr Dalgleish said, compared with the nine per cent recorded by FPD in its Office First Quarter 1995 quarterly property research.
'Renewal is the name of the game [for tenants] because there is a perception that there is a big supply coming in 1997 and 1998,' he said.
Despite tenant demand, companies prefer to make do with existing premises, before new office space becomes available.
Landlords have become increasingly flexible in their tenant negotiations.
