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Luxury rental rates are rapidly rising in these 4 Asian cities


Luxury rental rates are rapidly rising in these 4 Asian cities

While Hong Kong and Singapore come crashing down

Tokyo Skytree Tower in Japan. ZeroSystem / Shutterstock
Tokyo Skytree Tower in Japan. ZeroSystem / Shutterstock

Prime rents in Tokyo are growing the fastest in Asia, Knight Frank revealed in its latest Prime Global Rental Index.

Posting a 9 percent year-on-year growth in 12 months to June, the Japanese capital trails only Moscow as the world’s fastest-growing place for luxury rentals. This contrasts with a recent report by Japan’s Statistics Bureau that residential rents in Tokyo’s 23 special wards dropped 0.4 percent in the year to August.

Guangzhou was ranked third worldwide in prime rents, with a 4.8 percent growth in the year to June, leading other mainland Chinese cities in the top 10, Shanghai and Beijing, which registered a 1.6 percent and 0.7 percent rise, respectively.

“Increased demand from China for commodities suggest a positive outlook for the remainder of 2016,” according to Knight Frank.

Taipei posted zero growth in all the periods tracked by the index, which charts the rise and fall of rents in 17 cities worldwide. Luxury rental growth in Hong Kong suffered a major setback, falling 7.3 percent year-on-year. At the same time, Singapore rents sank 2.3 percent.

More: Not even the 2020 Olympics is helping Tokyo condo prices

Cities fared better in general in the year to June, with ten of the 17 locations seeing positive growth, compared with only seven in the previous quarterly report. The strong showing of cities boosted the index to a growth of 0.5 percent.

Sizable infrastructure investments in Moscow, coupled with a marked slowdown in the contraction of the national economy and substantial gains in Russian oil price, ensured the city’s number-one ranking, Knight Frank explained in its report.

“Whilst uncertainty caused by Brexit and the US presidential election still lingers, we are starting to see a more positive global economic landscape develop,” the report stated. Rental markets will continue to forge into positive territory with “sustained and positive economic data from the US as well as growth in emerging markets led by easier access to credit markets.”

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Source: Property Report