How will office rents evolve? At least three foreign real estate management and consultancy firms in Vietnam, namely CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), Savills and Jones Lang LaSalle, have shrugged off Cushman & Wakefield's proposed projection. They share the view that office rents will remain stable or decline slightly rather than sharply due to strong demand. “We don't think rents will fall as dramatically as some are suggesting, particularly in the Grade A office sector,” says Brett Ashton, managing director of Savills Vietnam. He says there is office space available here, but the supply is not redundant enough to cause rent to collapse as Cushman & Wakefield predicted. Toby Dodd, general manager of Cushman & Wakefield in Vietnam, says office rent in Vietnam will stabilize at $30 per square meter for grade A, $20 for grade B and $10 for grade C. These they are the same as regional cities such as Bangkok in Thailand, Jakarta in Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Manila in the Philippines. “That's why I believe office rents in Vietnam will be lower,” Dodd told the Daily after a real estate investment seminar held in HCMC earlier this month by the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) last week. Marc, managing director of CBRE Vietnam Townsend describes such decline as a “collapse” if office leasing goes this way. But he admits that current office rent is "extremely expensive" and is at least double that in those cities. “We don't see a collapse in rents,” Townsend says, blaming expensive rent as the biggest problem with access to cheap land. and infrastructure in Vietnam. Among other reasons, he also points to inflation, high construction costs and the "extremely difficult" possibility of obtaining a license. “This is why rents in Vietnam for hotels, apartments and shops are more expensive than in cities with the same population or less.” Ashton says rent will depend greatly on the quality, location and management of each building. However, it will take time for prices to fall, although Savills predicts Grade A rents will reach $100 per square meter by the end of 2008. Townsend reveals that Kumho is looking to break a series of records in the housing market rents. Ashton estimates Grade A office supply currently stands at 75,000 square meters in Ho Chi Minh City and the latest rents, based on the most recent new leases in Grade A buildings, equate to around US$97 per square metre, inclusive of service charges, but excluding value. tax added.