The eProp National Commercial Rental Barometer has grown by 10.3% in January 2007 compared with a year earlier. At the outset, it must be stressed that the data covers all grades and location of space and, as an aggregate, serves as a broad indication of rental direction for the country, and therefore, is not necessarily reflective of market rental levels per se.
 
Retail rental growth was 18.2%; offices grew by 10% and industrial property by 12.2%. In September 2006 I noted: “Going forward, I expect that an increasing amount of higher grade retail space will be available on the market and as such retail rental growth on eProp should continue being highest. Owing to the scarcity factor, office and industrial rental growth on eProp will remain relatively low”. One can hypothesize that the increase in retail vacancy rentals is a sign that prime space take up is possibly slowing and hence now feeding into rental statistics. For industrial and commercial, the corollary to this could apply.