JLL Opens Location in Nanjing as Office Demand Rises

Real estate services firm JLL (NYSE: JLL) this week announced the opening of an office in Nanjing, with Kevin Chan appointed as Managing Director. The new office is JLL’s 12th in mainland China and 15th in Greater China.

As the largest city in Jiangsu and the capital of the eastern China province, Nanjing’s commercial real estate market has been maturing rapidly in recent years as demand for high grade office space increases among local companies and international firms expand deeper into China.

“With its abundant business opportunities, heavy infrastructural construction investment and ever-improving urban support systems, Nanjing is attracting more and more well-known enterprises from home and abroad,” said KK Fung, Managing Director of JLL, Greater China. “As the 15th office of JLL in Greater China, the Nanjing office – together with the Xi’an office, which was set up at the end of last year – has convincingly demonstrated the firm’s continuous commitment to the China market.”

Earlier this year JLL brokered the RMB 2.48 billion sale of the Nanjing International Finance Centre on behalf of Li Ka-shing’s ARA Asia Dragon Fund. The real estate services firm has also assisted clients with a number of other high profile projects in the city.

Kevin Chan, the newly appointed Managing Director of JLL’s Nanjing office expressed enthusiasm about the city’s potential, noting that, “In recent years, the city has seen massive infrastructural upgrade and rapid development in the real estate market, which has an ever-growing demand for professional real estate services.”

The rise of Nanjing’s commercial real estate market is driven largely by the city’s rapidly developing service economy. The tertiary sector’s contribution to the local economy rose from 50.7% in 2010 to 53.4% in 2012.

As a result of this expansion in services, net take-up of high grade office space in the city reached 2.08 million sq ft (193,000 sqm) between 2011 and 2013, 20% higher than the period between 2008 and 2010. Office rents also increased by 19% over the last three years, driven by stable leasing demand together with strong owner-occupier demand.