Beijing grade-A office prices rise in Q1

Bucking the trend of a cooling down property market across China, rents and sales price of grade-A office space in Beijing edged up in the first quarter, said the world's leading real estate consulting company DTZ.

Beijing's average grade-A office rents climbed to 301.03 yuan (about 49 U.S. dollars) per square meter in the first quarter, up 0.7 percent from the previous quarter, the company said in a latest report.

In the first three months, the overall average sales price for grade-A office space in Beijing saw a 0.7-percent increase over the prior quarter to 63,936 yuan per square meter.

"Looking forward, we expect about 300,000 square meters of new office space to be launched by the end of 2014, which will help meet the demand. However, leasable space in core districts is still rare and we expect rents to increase steadily in 2014," it noted.