China's office, retail market face oversupply risk in 2014

Most office and retail markets in China will face pressure from mounting supplies in 2014, a report from CBRE, a global real estate and investment firm, showed on Friday.

Supplies nationwide reached an all-time high in the fourth quarter with 1,767,000 square meters of office space delivered, over 70 percent coming from second-tier cities.

New office supply in West China alone (Chengdu and Chongqing) reached 764,000 sq m, accounting for over 40 percent of the national total.

The average vacancy rate went up by 0.9 percentage points to 15.2 percent.

"With the expectation that more long-term regulation mechanisms will be introduced in 2014, the housing market is likely to stabilize," said Frank Chen, executive director, Head of CBRE Research, China.