In 2007, the total grade A office stock in Pudong was about 9.9million square feet, and now that figure is at 16.9 million squarefeet, says Anthony Couse, the managing director of JLL in Shanghai."By 2014, according to our research, the total stock for Pudongwill be about 32.8 million square feet," Couse says. The olderbusiness area, neighboring Puxi, is now at 32.4 million squarefeet.

He says the Pudong market has been resilient and has a strongcapacity to recover, as the districts' rents bottomed out beforemost other major markets in China. "In Q1, rents in Pudong's officemarket posted an increase of 5.4%, and reached an average rent ofRMB 6.40 ($0.94) per square meter per day." About 3.7 millionsquare feet will be completed in the districts this year alone, butJLL officials say the draw of the region as an internationalfinance and shipping center, as well as the upcoming World Expo,will ensure strong demand.

In 2009, JLL assisted clients transact leases of about 1.1million square feet in Pudong. The company is the leasing agent forShanghai IFC, Azia Center, One Lujiazui and Chamtime InternationalFinancial Center. Across China, JLL has 12 offices, including anoffice in Puxi.