Chart of the Day: This graph predicts where offices will suddenly sprout in the next 4 years

Should landlords start strategizing rents?

According to Chestertons, occupiers apprehensive about the potential hike in rentals in the next 1.5 years should engage their respective landlords early for a lease renewal exercise.

Here's more from Chestertons:

For those considering relocating, there are still bargains and reprieve. Whilst rental increases were seen in the CBD and Suburban Grade A micro-markets, the monthly rents of Suburban Grade B offices had remained stable at $4.75 psf for the past 6 months, reflecting a mere increase of 0.5% yoy.

In spite of a shortage of supply in 2015, the spill-over supply from 2014 should be sufficient to meet annual demand in 2015. This is based on the assumption that GDP growth remains within the 204% range, similar to 2013's 3.9% growth.

We expected 2016 to be a challenging year for landlords with a record 4.2 million sf of new stock added. Moving forward, we expect landlords to adopt a tenant retention strategy instead of raising rents significantly in 2014/2015, losing 'loyal' tenants and facing looming vacancies in 2016 when supply and relocation options are plenty.