The global real estate services and consulting firm DTZ recently held its "Urban Momentum, Building New Opportunities – DTZ Beijing 2026 Mid-Year Press Conference" at the Yucheng Building.

The event brought together over a hundred industry participants, including institutional investors, insurance capital institutions, experts, scholars, and media representatives.

Discussions focused on key topics such as commercial real estate REITs, the integration of culture, commerce, tourism, sports, and exhibitions, the consumption potential of median cities, and asset management and operations, aiming to decode urban development drivers and explore industry growth pathways.

Zhao Jinquan, CEO of DTZ Greater China, delivered the opening remarks.

He noted that in the first half of 2026, China's commercial real estate sector is undergoing a clear structural upgrade and a reshaping of its underlying logic.

The most significant industry event has been the explosive growth of the commercial real estate REITs market.

With continuous policy expansion and a steady broadening of the scope of underlying assets, the capital market channels for high-quality commercial assets have been fully opened.

This not only provides a mature exit path for revitalizing existing assets but also supplies the capital market with a large number of high-quality investment targets characterized by stable cash flow, defensiveness, and growth potential.

This shift is propelling the entire industry from a phase focused on "heavy development and heavy holding" to a new asset management stage of "operational empowerment + capital realization."

DTZ recently released its latest analysis of the Beijing office market for the second quarter of 2026.

Data shows that the total stock of Grade A office space in Beijing remained at 13.68 million square meters in Q2.

The market continued the adjustment trend from Q1, remaining in a phase of bottoming out, with rental levels continuing to diverge and the overall market still showing a volatile trend.

Specifically, the average office rent in Beijing was RMB 191.28 per square meter per month, down 4.5% quarter-on-quarter and 13.8% year-on-year.

The average rent in Beijing's five core business districts was RMB 220.75 per square meter per month, down 5.2% quarter-on-quarter and 14.3% year-on-year.

On the demand side, with no new supply entering the market in Q2 and driven by large-scale new leasing activities from some corporate tenants, the city's net office absorption reached 63,412 square meters.

Looking at the first half of 2026, net absorption for both the entire city and the five core business districts was below the level of the same period last year, reaching 77,303 square meters and -14,554 square meters, respectively.

Regarding vacancy rates, the citywide vacancy rate fell by 0.6 percentage points from the end of 2025 to 15.3%.

The vacancy rate in the five core business districts rose by 0.2 percentage points from year-end to 10.5%.

In terms of transaction structure, the continued decline in rents has spurred corporate relocation demand, making relocation the dominant transaction type in the first half of the year, followed by lease renewals.

These two categories accounted for 47.7% and 39.9% of the total leased area in H1, respectively.

Regarding industry demand structure, the three traditional sectors of TMT, professional services, and finance remained the core pillars of demand, accounting for 40.5%, 21.4%, and 16.0% of the total newly leased area across all industries in H1, respectively.

The healthcare industry accounted for 7.2%, ranking fourth.

Among new and relocation demand in Q2, the TMT, professional services, finance, and energy industries ranked top four in leased area, accounting for 43.3%, 25.4%, 11.9%, and 5.8% of the total newly leased area across all industries, respectively.

Deng Shanshan, Head of DTZ North China Project and Corporate Services and Deputy Managing Director, stated that based on monitoring data and actual transaction cases from the first and second quarters of 2026, the resilience of Beijing's CBD office market is evident.

The current relocation demand within the area essentially represents companies upgrading their office quality and expanding their scale within the CBD itself.

Several large lease transactions involving thousands of square meters in the first half were for upgrades and expansions within the core area, driving the CBD vacancy rate down from 12.57% in Q1 to 11.77% in Q2, indicating the fundamental stability of the core office market.

From an industrial perspective, high-value tenants such as those in finance and professional services accounted for over 70% of H1 transactions, with high-value-added functions like headquarters offices and international business continuing to cluster, making the area's industrial ecosystem difficult to replace.

Meanwhile, the accelerated entry and layout of foreign institutions and long-term capital's heavy investment in core plots fully confirm the scarcity and long-term asset value of the CBD as the capital's international business gateway.

On the rental front, the resilience of core business districts is significantly better than the citywide average, indicating the market is in a rational adjustment cycle.

Overall, Beijing's CBD continues to solidify its development foundation during the stock optimization cycle, with its long-term value and agglomeration capacity remaining a solid anchor for the Beijing office market.

In a keynote presentation, Wei Dong, DTZ's Chief Policy Analyst and Head of North China Research, released findings on "Median Cities – A Perspective on China's Consumption Foundation."

She stated that the vast number of median cities form a solid foundation for Chinese consumption.

Their large population base and continuously released consumption upgrade potential are the core forces supporting the long-term resilience of China's consumer market.

Simultaneously, the continuous improvement of county-level commercial infrastructure, the accelerated expansion of chain brands into lower-tier cities, the reverse national rise of local "small-town brands," coupled with explosive growth in sectors like service consumption, cultural tourism, leisure, and specialty retail, are making median cities the "anchor" and incremental blue ocean for the national expansion of retail and commercial real estate enterprises.

Cai Yang, Head of DTZ North China Business Marketing and Deputy Managing Director, shared insights on the theme "Culture, Commerce, Tourism, Sports, and Exhibitions Empowering a New Urban Ecosystem."

She proposed that the integration of culture, commerce, tourism, sports, and exhibitions has evolved from being a commercial real estate amenity to a core engine driving asset appreciation, empowering regional development, and optimizing the business environment.

Using three benchmark projects—the West Bank of the Tongzhou Canal, Langyuan STATION, and Changchun's Zheyoushan—as examples, she introduced successful practices: "sports + commerce + tourism" addressing the lack of foot traffic in business districts, transforming old industrial heritage into cultural and creative industry ecosystems, and integrating exhibition elements into traditional commerce to enhance operational efficiency.

She suggested that governments can promote urban space revitalization through coordinated planning, creating city IPs, innovating scenarios, and preserving cultural context, while media can broaden communication channels, build government-enterprise collaboration platforms, and showcase the region's favorable business environment externally.

DTZ also expressed its commitment to collaborating with all sectors to explore high-quality development paths for commercial real estate and assist Beijing in building itself into an international consumption center city.

A highlight of the press conference was the authoritative release of DTZ's "2025-2026 Asia REITs Research Report."

The report systematically reviews the market performance, category structure, and policy evolution of REITs in major Asian markets, with a focus on analyzing the expansion process and development opportunities of China's public REITs market.

Yang Zhi, Head of DTZ Beijing Valuation and Advisory Services and Asset Securitization Business, stated that with the successful launch of the first batch of commercial real estate REITs, public REITs have officially entered the era of dual drivers: "infrastructure + commercial real estate," and commercial real estate asset securitization is facing a significant policy window.

He emphasized that the operational quality and cash flow stability of the underlying assets are the core determinants of REITs' value, and professional, refined asset management capabilities may become the key threshold for real estate assets to access capital markets in the future.

The press conference featured a panel discussion on the theme "Commercial Real Estate REITs and the New Capital Landscape," moderated by Dong Yifan, Senior Assistant Director of DTZ Beijing Valuation and Advisory Services.

Panelists included Deng Ying, Deputy General Manager of Jinyu Asset Operation Company; Li Zibo, Head of Public REITs Business at China Life Capital; Yi Hongfan, Vice President of the Debt Financing Business Line at CITIC Securities Global Investment Banking Management Committee; and Meng Yi, Head of DTZ North China Retail.

Dong Yifan noted that since the launch of commercial real estate REITs at the end of 2025, the issuance side has responded actively.

Currently, 22 REIT products have been submitted to the exchanges, with 4 successfully listed, indicating rapid overall market development.

The underlying assets of these REITs cover office buildings, shopping malls, outlet malls, hotels, and other formats, offering richer asset types, creating channels to revitalize more existing assets, and providing more allocation options for the capital market.

Meng Yi stated that the current commercial real estate market is experiencing increased differentiation.

Flagship shopping malls and top-tier outlet malls in core cities,凭借 their stable operational performance, have become high-quality underlying assets highly recognized by the capital market.

This trend stems from structural changes in five dimensions—consumer behavior, customer demographics, and scenario demands—which have fundamentally reshaped the value logic of commercial assets.

The K-shaped divergence in domestic consumption continues to deepen, with mass consumption shifting from mere shopping to diverse experiential needs like socializing, leisure, and cultural tourism holidays.

The experiential value of offline commerce has now surpassed traditional retail value.

Today, an omnichannel operation model of "offline immersive experience + online private member engagement" has become standard for high-quality projects, while traditional commerce lacking digital capabilities continues to depreciate and exit the market at an accelerated pace.

In terms of formats, the two major sectors of outlet micro-vacations and cultural curation in shopping malls are continuously expanding.

Sports and outdoors, family/kids, and light cultural tourism—the three major experiential formats—have become core drivers for increasing project foot traffic and performance.

The industry has entered an era of stock quality improvement, where core commercial projects with differentiated scenarios, digital capabilities, and high-quality experiential formats will continue to lead the market.

Concluding the press conference, Hu Feng, Managing Director of DTZ North China, delivered closing remarks.

He stated that the event, through its focus on core issues such as consumption trends, the integration of culture, commerce, tourism, sports, and exhibitions, the REITs market, and asset management and operations, presented DTZ's in-depth research and industry insights while building a bridge for deep exchange between industry and capital.

In the second half of 2026, the real estate market will continue to foster structural opportunities amidst adjustment, with urban renewal, asset securitization, and industrial upgrading becoming the core themes running through market development.

DTZ will continue to deepen its presence in the real estate market, leveraging its professional service capabilities across the entire industry chain to provide clients with one-stop solutions from asset operation to capital deployment, moving forward hand-in-hand with industry colleagues towards a new journey of high-quality urban development.