WiredScore, a global leader in digital connectivity and smart building certification, has officially entered the Chinese mainland and unveiled its first strategic partners.

Leading developers including Hines, Hongkong Land, H Properties, Shanghai SIIC North Bund New Landmark Construction and Development Co, and Sun Hung Kai Properties have committed to pursuing Wired-Score and SmartScore certifications for over 20 buildings in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, and Shanghai.

This marks WiredScore's latest milestone in the Asia-Pacific region, following its entry into Singapore and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2022.

In China's real estate market, building resilience is shifting from a differentiator to a baseline expectation for occupiers. Cushman & Wakefield reported that as of the second quarter of 2025, Grade A office vacancy was averaging approximately 24.9 percent across 20 major cities, pushing landlords to compete beyond price and location.

CBRE's China occupier surveys point in the same direction, showing that building facilities and services have become a decisive factor in leasing decisions (71 percent) — underscoring a market-wide shift toward performance-driven tenant expectations.

Against this backdrop, establishing clear, quantifiable and globally comparable standards for evaluating digital buildings is becoming an urgent priority for the commercial real estate sector.

Global market data show that WiredScore-certified buildings in London achieved a 4.1 percent rental premium, while buildings with both WiredScore and Smart-Score certifications achieved a 7.3 percent rental premium.

"The Chinese mainland is one of the most dynamic and strategically important real estate markets in the world. Our further expansion into China reflects our long-term commitment to supporting global landlords and tenants with transparent, performance-driven standards for digital infrastructure," said William Newton, CEO of WiredScore.

"As demand for technology-resilient buildings accelerates worldwide, we see significant opportunities to partner with leading Chinese developers who are shaping the next generation of commercial assets."

At the launch event on March 12, WiredScore released its white paper "Insights 2026: Resilience Gets Real", offering the Chinese real estate market an international perspective on building resilience assessment. The report shows that as companies place increasing emphasis on business consistency and digital capabilities, building resilience is shifting from a "differentiating advantage" to a baseline requirement for tenants. In China, this trend is particularly pronounced.

The white paper breaks down the core challenges and response strategies facing the global building environment across three dimensions: physical resilience, digital resilience and cybersecurity resilience.

"By introducing an international standard certification system, not only can it promote the improvement of local building quality and service levels, but it also provides new ways for homeowners to achieve rental premiums," said Yu Fenghui, an independent financial commentator. "It will help promote the development of China's commercial real estate industry to a higher quality, and also bring a win-win situation for investors and users. This is undoubtedly a positive development direction for the Chinese commercial real estate market, which is undergoing profound transformation."

zhengyiran@chinadaily.com.cn