Asteco, a property management company, said that average office rents in prime office building in the capital have slumped by 4% in three months ending in September. The slump in prime office rents – often seen as a bellwether of a city’s economy – follows a similar dip in rents the previous quarter. Asteco said that office rents in the capital are now 72% lower than they had been at their market peak in late 2008. Housing rents in the capital also continued to decline, Asteco said, as landlords bore the brunt of job cuts in the oil and gas and construction industries with areas often popular with oil executives experiencing the largest falls. (The National)