Shanghai’s Office Vacancy Rate Tops the World: Foreign Firms Flee, Local Firms Fold—Now a Ghost City

What's most painful in Shanghai right now isn't falling home prices. It's that empty apartments just won't rent. In our neighborhood last year, a three-bedroom apartment rented for 6,500 yuan a month. Before one tenant even moved out, the next was already eager to sign. Apartments were never sitting empty. But this year, everything has changed. Landlords desperately want agents to find renters, but agents can't do much either. They post photos on WeChat moments, promote places in short videos, send messages to neighborhood groups, and ask everyone if they need an apartment. It's even worse in nearby resettlement communities. Apartments that rented for 3,800 yuan a month last year have dropped to 2,600 yuan. One older landlady rides an electric scooter around their neighborhood every day with a rental ad hanging from it. Still, nobody even comes to view the place. Where have all the people looking to rent in Shanghai gone? These buildings used to be lit up. Now, 9 out of 10 floors are empty. Brick and mortar businesses in Shanghai are struggling, and many say they can't hold on much longer. I'm in Zhenru, Shanghai. Look at how many offices are empty. They're all vacant. This huge office building, and I haven't seen a single person. The buildings across the street are basically empty too. There's no sign of anyone, including here. Video filmed by this vlogger in Zhenru shows just how deserted the buildings are. Few people can be seen in the widely hallways or elevator lobbies. Across the street, the lights are dim, with almost no signs of office activity. This landmark, complex, about 660 to 755 feet tall, was once expected to become a new business hub for Putuo District and Western Shanghai. But within just a few years, the excitement surrounding its launch has given way to silence. Some data put the overall vacancy rate in Zhenru at as high as 72% in 2024. Two years later, the situation has shown little improvement. To some observers, the buildings now appear almost completely empty. A real estate agent with years of experience in Shanghai said, I've seen so many neighborhoods rise and fall. Some used to be incredibly popular, but the property market has now left them behind. Others look like they're in good locations, but urban planners seem to have forgotten them. Today, I'm going to talk about a few areas in central Shanghai that have been left behind. Share this quickly after watching, the video could be taken down anytime. First, Houtan in Pudong new area. It started with huge ambitions, a roughly 20.5 million square foot district built as Pudong's next Lujiazui. There were even rumors the city government would move there, but visit today and it's quiet and overgrown with weeds. Two unreliable developers are a big reason. South Korea's SK Group arrived with great fanfare in 2011, but after 10 years, nothing much had happened. Kerry Properties announced plans in 2017 to invest 3 billion yuan in a massive mixed-use complex, but that also went nowhere. Now the area depends on visitors to the Expo Culture Park. Second, Wanli in Putuo District, it's a newer middle-class residential area with 47% green coverage. Later came Zhongyin Black Forest, Shanghai's first technology-focused residential development, but development stalled after that. Many residents complained that Wanli's local facilities haven't changed in 20 years. Third, Tianling in Xuhui District, it's still dominated by old, run-down, cramped housing, perhaps the worst example in Shanghai. Without the nearby Caohejing Business District, the whole area might have collapsed. Redevelopment seems to be its only way forward. Fourth, Wuliqiao in Huangpu District. Many people have probably never heard of it. It's right next to the upscale Xintiandi shopping area and near the Expo Riverfront Development Corridor. Yet it's still known for its aging buildings, with few opportunities for urban renewal. It's among the least desirable areas in Huangpu. Shanghai once prospered on land sale revenues and was known for its bustling streets. But it has struggled to recover since the COVID lockdowns. With foreign investors pulling out, physical businesses struggling, and consumer spending less, its major commercial districts face an unprecedented vacancy crisis. It's not just premium office towers. Once-busy shopping streets and famous stores that used to draw long lines are closing or being transferred to new owners. It's getting harder and harder to run a physical business in Shanghai. Everywhere you look, shopping malls are closed and business towers are empty. The buildings are deserted inside. They used to be lit up everywhere you walked. Now 9 out of 10 places seem empty. Business is terrible. Lots of shops put up big red signs advertising clearance sales at rock-bottom prices. A few days later, the stores are gone and the spaces are up for transfer, with storefront businesses doing this badly. What kind of business can anyone run and survive? After years of heavy-handed CCP policies, China's former economic powerhouse has become a leader in empty office space. Officials keep promoting grand, national narratives, yet have failed to protect basic employment and economic vitality. All the foot massage places in Shanghai are giving staff time off now. I was just upstairs at the pool hall for a while. They told me all their assistants have gone home on leave. You can't book anyone. That's the situation in Shanghai. The economy was already doing badly, and things here have gotten even worse. I believe many companies just can't keep going. I'm at Bailu Yanyuan in Shanghai. Look around, it's practically a ghost town. There's nobody in sight. On this visit to Shanghai, I suddenly noticed how depressed the city feels. The malls aren't crowded, nightlife is quiet, and lots of factories have shut down. Look at this airport, it's deserted, with hardly anyone around. It's nothing like the bustling Shanghai I remember from a few years ago. I checked and found that more people have been leaving Shanghai than moving in over the past few years. What's going on? The job market in Shanghai is also under severe pressure. Openings are shrinking, especially high-paying positions. Incomes have fallen sharply across many industries, and wages are much lower than expected. Even graduates of China's prestigious Project 985 and Project 211 universities are struggling to find suitable work. How bad is the job market in Shanghai? I graduated in 2018. I studied design and later switched to social media operations. Now it's hard to find a job in Shanghai paying 6,000 yuan a month that includes the five social insurance programs, the housing fund, and weekends off. You can send out hundreds of resumes and get maybe a dozen interviews. Some of those might just be HR people trying to meet their performance targets. They make you go through the first, second, and third interview, dragging things out for two weeks or even a month. Then they tell you you're not a good fit. They even make you doubt yourself, saying there are huge numbers of overseas graduates who can't find jobs in Shanghai. A lot of people in Shanghai are out of work now. If you don't believe me, go to a park. There are so many more middle-aged people walking around than in previous years, and lots of people are just staying home. I really want to ask those who aren't working, how are you making a living? A lot of people think everyone in Shanghai is rich, but that's not true. Some Shanghai residents have never even been on a plane or a cruise. I've never taken a cruise either. Some have never visited Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan. Others still live in old apartments of only about 110 to 215 square feet. Plenty earn less than 100,000 yuan a year. Some see buying a car as a luxury so please don't assume everyone in shanghai is wealthy there really aren't that many rich people finding a job in shanghai is so hard it feels like there are more graduates from elite project 985 and 211 universities than trash cans people say september and october are the best month for job hunting so i sent out about 200 to 300 resumes the finding work here is incredibly tough college graduates are everywhere and dozens of even hundreds compete for a single position that's why employers keep raising their requirements a receptionist job paying 6,000 a month now demands a polished appearance a bachelor's degree and fluent spoken english are they hiring receptionists or business executive i've really wanted to work for a foreign company lately everyone online says they're great but who actually gets hired i've applied to so many and heard nothing back. How are we supposed to survive in Shanghai? I keep thinking about how to find a well-paying job. I'm so worried I can barely eat. The latest figures show that Shanghai's office vacancy rate remained at 24.5% in the third quarter, while rents continue to fall. An October 2023 third quarter report from CBRE showed Shanghai's office vacancy rate dipping just 0.1 percentage points from the previous quarter of 24.4%, still nearly one in four offices. Among 20 cities worldwide compared by real estate services firm CBRE, Shanghai had the highest office vacancy rate. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, Shanghai's vacancy rate rose 5.1 percentage points more than New York's 3.8 points, London's 2.6 points and Tokyo's 0.7 points. At the end of the third quarter, asking rent for Shanghai offices averaged about 0.72 yuan per square foot, which is 7.7 yuan per square meter per day. That was down 0.6% from the previous quarter. Effective rents after incentives such as rent-free periods were about 0.47 yuan per square foot, which is 5.1 yuan per square meter per day, down 0.8%. Japanese media Nikkei cited foreign companies pulling out or reducing investment, along with mainland Chinese businesses leasing less office space as factors behind Shanghai's persistently high vacancies. The Economic Observer previously reported that rents at some Grade A office buildings in Shanghai had fallen back to levels seen about 10 years earlier. An employee at an office building in Lujiazui said tenants now have more bargaining power. To retain good tenants, landlords offer discounts on renewals, usually through private case-by-case negotiations. The report also quoted Xie Chen, head of research at CBRE China. He said some landlords offer shared office workstations as an added benefit and some tenants want those incentives written into their leases. Reports from April also showed some properties in Shanghai's Hongqiao business district being offered with zero security deposit. Some landlords have discussed rent cuts on Weibo. A user named Fei Jiguo De Yangzi said rent on an office property they own in Lujiazui fell 3% at renewal. At this point, I'm happy as long as it isn't vacant. With new offices still being built, one Weibo user asked, why does Shanghai keep building office towers when so many are already empty. Meanwhile, attention has turned to office buildings in Lujiazui that are empty inside but still lit up at night. One vlogger entered an office building near the Oriental Pearl Tower at night and found an entire floor deserted. Only the lights near the windows were on. From a distance, the building looked busy and bright. Up close, it was empty, and this was not an isolated case. Nikkei also noted that some empty office buildings in Lujiazui kept their lights on. The lights face outward rather than illuminating the work areas, possibly to create an impressive nighttime skyline. A Shanghai resident using the pseudonym Zheng Jie, who was born in the 1980s, said offices in prime areas are largely vacant. They look brightly lit from outside at night, but inside the offices are empty with lights left on to create an illusion of prosperity. He said under the CCP system, even when a decision is wrong, no one dares to tell the truth. He said he once believed China and Shanghai were developing well but after Shanghai's COVID lockdown during the three-year pandemic he realized the country had serious problems. He said the problems hidden by that prosperity are now gradually coming to the surface. Shanghai's economy and people's livelihoods are facing serious problems. Many companies can barely keep operating. Young people struggle to find jobs and some even earn less than their retired parents. For most people, life isn't as good as it used to be. A Chinese human rights lawyer, Ye Fei Yu, based overseas and a veteran investor, said official CCP statistics have long lacked transparency. He said, I think vacancies may already be above 50%. A lot of the official data is concealed. He said the continual economic downturn reduced business activity and earlier overbuilding of offices and industrial parks have made it difficult to attract tenants. Vacancies have grown as leasing has fallen short of expectations. He said business contracts in Shanghai told him that even prime storefronts near subway exits frequently change tenants, and many are now empty. Ye Fei Yu believes empty office buildings reflect China's weak economy and a lack of confidence among foreign investors. He said those in power don't understand economics. They focus on centralizing power and suppressing opponents. Relations with major democracies keep deteriorating and the country is turning inward again. He also said that as land sale revenues decline, the CCP has increased fines on businesses and intensified pressure on private companies. He linked this to business owners jumping off buildings and to long distance fishing when authorities pursue businesses outside the jurisdiction to maximize local government tax revenue. He said I've met many business owners like this. Even when their companies were doing well, they were ruined or sent to prison. With the political and business environment deteriorating and the economic outlook bleak, many foreign companies have left. Ye Fei Yu described China's real estate market as a Ponzi scheme. He said the government inflated a huge property bubble, while ordinary families poured decades of future earnings and their life savings into homes. When that bubble burst, many suffered heavy losses. He said the government benefited the most, while ordinary people lost everything. Shanghai's office vacancy rate now ranks highest among the major cities surveyed worldwide. The trend is closely tied to foreign companies leaving, declining investment in China and local firms cutting back on office space. On October 18, 2026, the Financial Times reported that Accenture, the world's largest publicly listed IT consulting firm, was considering selling its greater China operations. The business could be valued at up to 1.5 billion US dollars. Accenture China Co. Ltd. is registered and has its main office at Central Plaza in Shanghai. It has 20,000 employees, 33 years in China and a valuation of 10 billion yuan, which is about 1.4 billion US dollars. Those three figures sparked a familiar reaction in online comments. a fire sale, a retreat, foreign capital fleeing. But a foreign giant restructuring its assets in China could have a much bigger impact on the domestic market than the reaction alone suggests. Media reports show that over the past three years, many foreign companies have withdrawn from Shanghai or sharply reduced their operations. In 2026, French skincare brand Beluga and South Korean cosmetics brand Hince shut their Shanghai operations centers and exited domestic e-commerce operations. Industrial coating company Sherwin-Williams liquidated its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai and withdrew completely from the Chinese market. Peng Hai, a Shanghai-based financial scholar, said offices in Lujiazui and Hongqiao once housed many foreign companies and financial institutions. Now some private companies are moving their headquarters functions to cheaper cities while financial institutions are downsizing their offices. He said falling rents reflect weaker demand from businesses. Real estate industry insider Dai Yu said the economy here in Shanghai is really depressed. He lives in Huamu in Pudong with the Lujiazui financial and trade zone on one side and the innovation hub of Zhangjiang on the other. Dai Yu said because of online shopping and weaker consumer spending, many famous shopping centers that used to be packed have shut down. Business at Yao Han is slow, and many upscale restaurants in Lujiazui have closed. But Dai Yu said that is not the main reason. Many foreign companies and investors have left, and numerous firms and factories have relocated. As a result, central Shanghai has far fewer foreign residents and Chinese executives working for foreign companies. Consumer spending has suffered. One estimate put a foreign family's annual spending in Shanghai at 2 million yuan, with schooling and housing accounting for several hundred thousand yuan, often reimbursed by employers. He said, think about how many foreign company executives there were, along with local middle managers getting similar benefits. Chao Pen, who previously worked for a foreign company said, an arrogant dictator has sounded the death knell for China's economy.