Taipei rental rates for Grade A office space in the first quarter ranked No. 16 among 20 cities in the Asia-Pacific region, London-headquartered property consultant Knight Frank said.

In a research report, Knight Frank said the average rent for Grade A offices in Taipei for the January-to-March period hit NT$2,592 per ping (3.3m2), up 0.2 percent from a quarter earlier, but down 0.3 percent from a year earlier.

Knight Frank research department deputy director Andy Huang (黃舒衛) said the data show that the Grade A office market in the city remains stable.

Huang said that since select prominent projects, such as Cathay Landmark (國泰置地廣場) in Xinyi District (信義), offer prices of no less than NT$3,500 per ping, which has become a barometer for the local Grade A office market, he expects rents to grow at a steady pace of 3 to 5 percent over the next six months.

However, due to a 30,000-ping supply increase in the fourth quarter, the vacancy rate is expected to rise from 8.1 percent to 10 percent, Huang said.

In the rankings, Taipei was ahead of only Phnom Penh (NT$2,356), Manila (NT$1,841), Bangalore (NT$1,666) and Kuala Lumpur (NT$1,317), the report said.

The capital lagged behind three major Chinese cities: Beijing (NT$5,524, No. 5), Shanghai (NT$4,454, No. 8) and Guangzhou (NT$2,716, No. 15), Knight Frank said.

Bangkok took 14th place with an average rental rate of NT$2,757 per ping, up 3.1 percent from a quarter earlier and 9.6 percent from the previous year, the highest growth among the cities in the report, it said.

Bangkok outperformed Taipei in the first quarter of last year and the gap between the two cities has widened since then, it said, adding that the Thai capital even beat Guangzhou for the first time.

Hong Kong retained its No. 1 spot with the highest rent for Grade A office space with an average rate of NT$21,150 per ping, up 2.5 percent from a quarter earlier and 7.9 percent from a year earlier, Knight Frank said.

The rising rental rates in Hong Kong largely reflected strong demand for office space in Central — the territory’s business district — from Chinese firms, it said.

Tokyo came second, with average rent of NT$9,135 per ping, down 1.1 percent from the previous quarter and 1.8 percent from a year earlier, ahead of Singapore, where the average rental rate reached NT$6,182, down 0.9 percent from a quarter earlier and 8.7 percent from a year earlier, the report said.

According to Knight Frank, the average rental rate for the 20 cities rose 1 percent from the previous quarter and gained 2.3 percent from a year earlier.