At a time when residential property sales have been shrinking because of tough government measures, investors are finding potential in the long-overlooked commercial property market, say industry insiders.

A new survey released by real estate consultancy firm DTZ shows more than 265,000 square meters of A-level office space in Beijing had come onto the market by the third quarter, taking the total overall stock of high quality office space to more than 6. 4 million sq m.

The average cost of renting such space increased by 3.36 percent in the third quarter, to reach 160.5 yuan per sq m per month.