Office rents slowing down (2)

"A number of landlords began to offer more rental incentives to combat slowing demand and retain existing tenants, given the current sluggish economy," said Joan Wang, head of research at Savills Beijing.

The demand for office space across China continued to decrease in 2012 due to a sluggish economy, with net absorption falling by more than 40 percent year-on-year, statistics from CBRE showed.

In response to the slowdown of the domestic economy - compounded by a number of uncertainties in the global economy as a whole - many multinational companies suspended their expansion plans in China in 2012.

A number of Chinese companies have also slowed down the pace of their business expansion, which has had a profound impact on the office market.

From a regional perspective, the net take-up in eastern and northern China both shrank by more than 50 percent, CBRE statistics showed.

On the other hand, the market in western China stood out with an 8 percent year-on-year growth in net take-up, thanks to the central government's go-west policies as well as the ongoing development of the local office market.

In terms of supply, numerous offices that had originally been scheduled for completion in 2012 delayed their construction schedules in response to economic uncertainty both in China and abroad. This caused the amount of new supply to decrease by 30 percent year-on-year.