Rising Demand Future Ready Workspaces Apac Cushman Wakefield
August 16, 2021
Apac’s office sector is going through a major transformation as it reaches a new level of strategic maturity, according to a recent report by Cushman & Wakefield. The firm highlights that the rapid expansion of the office market in Asia-Pacific (Apac) over the last decade has now resulted in a fundamental shift in the approach of occupants towards office spaces.
Cushman & Wakefield’s chief executive for India, Southeast Asia and Middle East and Africa and Apac head for offices and retail, Anshul Jain, states that it is no longer just about expansion. The office has now become a platform for brand expression, cultural alignment, and performance.
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According to the report, the supply of Grade A office buildings in the region has doubled from 1.2 billion sq ft in 2015 to 2.33 billion sq ft in the second quarter of 2025. Within the same period, 900 million sq ft of Grade A office space was absorbed, with the majority located in cities across India, Southeast Asia, and mainland China.
However, this increase in supply has also led to a rise in vacancy rates from 13% to 18% region-wide. This is indicative of a broader shift in the market, with occupiers becoming more selective. Jain explains that companies are now prioritizing spaces that promote talent, support ESG commitments, and enable long-term resilience.
The demand for future-ready workspaces in Apac is primarily being driven by office markets in mainland China, India, and Southeast Asia. In China, sustained demand from the technology, media, and telecommunications, professional services, and finance industries has resulted in a doubling of occupied Grade A office stock to 640 million sq ft. These sectors, along with emerging industries like artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, and quantum computing, are expected to continue driving demand while also fueling the current trend of occupiers seeking high-quality spaces.
In India, cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, which have become hubs for global capability centers, are driving office leasing activity. The annual net absorption across these cities hit 40 million sq ft from 2023 to 2024, with an increasing focus on Grade A+ buildings as India positions itself as a leading destination for digital transformation and R&D.
In Southeast Asia, the occupied Grade A stock has grown by 10% over the last five years, reaching 235 million sq ft in 2024. Despite higher vacancy rates, prime Grade A offices in cities like Manila, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh City are achieving record-high rents, with rents 20% above the overall market benchmarks, according to Cushman & Wakefield. While the banking and finance industry continues to drive demand in key Southeast Asian markets, tech companies, information technology and business process management providers, and healthcare firms are also expanding across the region. This has resulted in increasingly sophisticated tenant requirements, highlighting the need for higher-quality spaces.
Among the markets studied in the report, Singapore stands out with the lowest office vacancy rate in Apac at 5%. This is despite having the highest office rental cost at US$103.1 ($132.3) per sq ft per year. While neighboring markets face higher vacancies (such as Kuala Lumpur at 28% and Bangkok at 27%), Singapore maintains strong demand, reflecting its position as a regional financial and tech hub.
As the Apac office market continues to mature, Cushman & Wakefield predicts that office spaces will undergo more strategic reinvention. Dominic Brown, the firm’s head of international research, comments that they are seeing a shift from volume to value, where the quality of space, its alignment with ESG goals, and its ability to support innovation are becoming the new benchmarks.