Businesses in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly looking to relocate out of high-cost business districts into cheaper areas, creating new opportunities for investors, according to Partners Group, the Swiss alternative house.

The trend is taking off in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney, where the differential between rental prices in city centres and fringe locations is particularly pronounced. “Vacancy rates in traditional central business districts are down to extraordinary low levels,” said Bastian Wolff, head of Asia-Pacific real estate at Partners. “This is a core focus in our value creation strategy for Asia-Pacific.”

In April, Partners bought a HK$1tn, 13-storey, 200,000 sq ft warehouse in Kowloon East, a former industrial heartland the Hong Kong government is attempting to convert into a second central business district. It is converting the building into office space in the hope of raising the rental income by at least threefold. Rents in Kowloon East are just 40 per cent of those in the existing CBD.