TENANTS refusing to pay higher rents and inactive investors anticipating further Government measures are causing commercial rents and strata-title prices to stabilise, agents say.
According to the Vigers/Knight-Ridder Property Index, office rents in Hong Kong's Central district edged upwards in July with signs that certain tenants were refusing to pay higher rents.
Paul Dwyer, Vigers commercial director said: ''It seems that we've got tenant resistance creeping in.'' ''In effect that is what is now manifesting itself and we're anticipating no more than a one or two per cent rise in any month until the first quarter of 1995,'' he said.
With office costs in Central now reported to be the highest in the world, some companies are moving operations elsewhere rather than pay the increasing rents.
Mr Dwyer said the current stability of rents, which has come as tenants move operations to outlying areas or put up with cramped offices, was healthy because it reduced the chances of a crash in the future.
He added that the big question is whether financial institutions, which have always insisted on locating in Central district, will accept offices in satellite districts.
If these blue-chip financial houses do not move staff to the outlying areas, rents in Central are expected to climb higher due to tight supply.
