Trading volume surges nearly 160%! Leading players are clustering! This market is experiencing a strong recovery.

Just-ended Q1 saw a recovery in leasing demand for office buildings in Shenzhen, Guangdong. The vacancy rate for Grade-A office buildings declined for a second consecutive quarter. Data show that in Q1 2026, the transaction volume for Shenzhen’s newly built office buildings increased by 158.8% year over year; the transaction volume for existing office buildings increased by 31% year over year.

Guangdong Shenzhen: Grade-A office market warms up; vacancy rate falls for two consecutive quarters

Yang Jing, who has been in the office leasing business in Shenzhen for years, has clearly felt the market heating up recently. When the reporter met him, he was showing a client around properties on site. Yang Jing said that since entering March, leasing transaction cases for office buildings have continued to increase, and the number of property viewings has also rebounded noticeably.

Yang Jing, leasing client manager at a certain intermediary in Shenzhen, Guangdong: Both the number of inquiries and the number of property viewings are higher than last year, up by 20% to 30%. The willingness of inquiry clients has also improved significantly compared with last year. In Q1, the transaction volume increased by 20% to 30% quarter over quarter.

The reporter’s visits to multiple areas in Shenzhen, including Bao’an, Nanshan, Futian, and Luohu, found that the vacancy rate of office buildings in industrially supported areas has fallen particularly noticeably. For example, regions such as ShuiBei, NanYou, and the Hi-Tech Park have seen sustained activity in leasing demand.

Zhang Guangda, project manager for an office building leasing project in Shenzhen, Guangdong: The overall occupancy-to-rent rate reaches 95%, and the price is 130 yuan per square meter per month. This year, prices have risen by 15% to 20%. This project is in the NanYou subdistrict, and most clients come from the clothing market.

Data show that the Shenzhen office building market has continued the active momentum that began in the fourth quarter of last year, and the signals of recovery have kept strengthening. In Q1 2026, the city’s Grade-A office market net absorption was about 142,000 square meters, up 75% year over year; the overall vacancy rate dropped to 25.9%, falling for two consecutive quarters.

Guangdong Shenzhen: Tech companies expand leases; “going out” service upgrades keep office demand releasing

Driven by multiple factors such as policy support, improvements to industrial platforms, and an influx of talent, more and more leading enterprises with scale effects have moved into Grade-A office buildings in Shenzhen, bringing related upstream and downstream companies together—such as IP operations and professional outsourcing services—further expanding office demand.

As a demonstration zone for integration between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, Qianhai offers flexible policies within the region that provide targeted support for multiple industries, including cross-border e-commerce, technology companies, and Hong Kong-funded enterprises, helping companies expand and deepen their development in the context of Shenzhen–Hong Kong integration.

Shi Jiantao, senior director for leasing at a Grade-A office building in Qianhai, Shenzhen, Guangdong: The overall leasing rate grew by about 20% compared with the first quarter of last year. In Q1, there were more than 10,000 square meters of transactions. About 50% of the transactions are mainly technology-related, about 30% are in the financial industry, and 20% are in professional services.

Technology companies’ concentrated deals represented by lease expansions from leading consumer electronics companies, combined with the continued ramp-up of new tracks such as robotics, have become the core support for the warming of Shenzhen’s Grade-A office market. A person in charge of a global technology company told the reporter that, as their robotics AI data reinforcement training business has been rapidly advanced, the company’s demand for office and training space has increased significantly.

“Going out” has evolved from a strategic choice of a small number of enterprises into an operating standard for most growing and leading companies. With the improved supply-chain system of the Greater Bay Area and cross-border service capabilities, many functional teams required for enterprises’ overseas expansion—such as overseas marketing, cross-border compliance, international payments, logistics, and supply-chain coordination—are accelerating their implementation in Shenzhen.

Data show that in 2025, throughout the year, the area of new leasing transactions driven mainly by Shenzhen consumer electronics companies in emerging industries was close to 80,000 square meters, accounting for about one-third of the city’s total net absorption from leasing. Entering 2026, this momentum continues to heat up. Meanwhile, the robotics track is also performing actively; multiple companies combined have signed about 20,000 square meters of industrial space.

Guangdong Shenzhen: New commercial real estate policies take effect; Grade-one and Grade-two office transactions see rising heat

In January this year, the commercial real estate market received policy tailwinds. The minimum down payment ratio for commercial property purchase mortgage loans was adjusted to no less than 30%. Shenzhen followed and implemented the policy; since it took effect for more than two months, transaction activity in Shenzhen’s Grade-one and Grade-two office building markets has warmed up, with companies’ self-use demand being released at an accelerated pace.

Commercial properties include business formats such as office buildings, apartments, and shops. Previously, the down payment ratio for loans was generally 50%. After this down payment ratio was lowered, the capital threshold for companies to buy office buildings dropped significantly, directly driving increased market transaction activity. The reporter learned through visits in Shenzhen that the current transaction heat for existing (secondhand) office buildings has continued to warm up, and the number of client visits by some intermediary agencies has increased by multiples compared with the fourth quarter of last year.

In the newly built (firsthand) office building market, a certain project located in the Hedong Shenzhen–Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone in Shenzhen’s bonded area has attracted the attention of companies in fields such as information science, materials science, and life sciences, thanks to the project’s positioning as a demonstration zone for Shenzhen–Hong Kong science and technology innovation cooperation. The project manager said that after the policy was released, the project’s consultation volume rose noticeably, and the attention from Hong Kong-funded enterprises also improved significantly.

Data show that in Q1 2026, the transaction volume for Shenzhen’s newly built office buildings increased by 158.8% year over year; the transaction volume for existing office buildings increased by 31% year over year.

(Source: CCTV Finance and Economics)