CBRE survey finds half of Asia-Pacific occupiers plan to expand offices

Half of Asia-Pacific occupiers intend to expand their office footprints over the next three years, with regional attendance settled into what CBRE calls a steady state, according to the firm's 2026 Asia Pacific Office Occupier Survey carried in the IPE Real Assets APAC briefing; the same respondents say they are prioritising premium workplaces and central business district locations.

Tom Gaffney, CBRE's head of leasing for Asia-Pacific, describes occupiers selectively growing their portfolios while attendance and utilisation largely stabilise at higher levels and a new equilibrium forms around quality space. Half of the respondent pool wanting more room is a demand reading; taken with the stated preference for CBDs and premium buildings, it suggests a consolidation trade in which the best assets take tenancy from the rest rather than the region adding net space, an inference from the survey's framing rather than a finding it publishes.

Price is what the survey does not publish. The briefing carries no rents, no per-foot figures and no market-level splits, and an intent to expand is not a signed lease. The US experience this publication has been documenting is a caution: a $100 million renovation at 1411 Broadway converted into more than 182,000 square feet of leasing and a path toward 90 percent occupancy, while Fifth Third's expansion at Rockefeller Center established who was still signing, if not what the tenant would pay. Quality is what gets underwritten; the rent line stays open until a lease closes.

The briefing's second half points capital elsewhere: the Asia-Pacific Data Centre Association has published a white paper arguing that data centres should act as catalysts for modernising regional power and water utilities as digital demand grows. The IPE Real Assets September/October edition cites McKinsey estimates that more than $6 trillion of investment is required by 2030 to meet global cloud and AI computing demand, and pension capital is already committed: CPP Investments bought Asia-Pacific data centre platform AirTrunk alongside Blackstone two years ago for around $16 billion, holds stakes in EdgeConnex and Equinix, and this summer committed up to INR70 billion, roughly €640 million, to Indian data centres with local operator CtrlS.

Jeremy Deutsch, the association's chair, says the sector's scale, predictable demand and long-term investment are already helping accelerate clean energy deployment, strengthen grids and support more resilient water systems. The paper's ask is that data centres be treated as instruments of utility modernisation, which puts the sector in front of planners and utilities rather than only landlords and tenants.

For office allocators the three-year horizon makes absorption the open question: half the region's occupiers say they want more space, the survey's preference runs to the premium end, and who absorbs everything else is what the briefing leaves open.