OFFICE rents in the Asia-Pacific region rose at almost double the global pace in the third quarter as China's economic expansion fueled demand for commercial real estate, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

Rents for the highest-quality office space increased 10.5 percent from a year earlier, the Chicago-based broker said in a report yesterday. That compared with a global growth rate of 5.5 percent.

Cities in Asia, including China's financial hub Shanghai, Perth in Australia's mining heartland and the technology hub of Bangalore in India, had some of the highest levels of annual rental growth, Jones Lang said, as economic expansion in the region outpaces the United States and Europe. The Americas had a 2.6 percent advance, while rents in Europe rose 4.4 percent.

"Most major markets are in better shape than they have been since 2008, but investors and corporations are unsettled by current economic uncertainties," Arthur de Haast, head of Jones Lang's international capital group, said in the report.

Beijing rents soared 50.6 percent year on year, the most in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by Jakarta, Indonesia, with 48 percent and Perth with 26.9 percent because of demand from China for Australia's commodities.