Oahu’s average asking retail rents jumped to a new record high of $3.93 per square foot per month in the first quarter, signaling the further loss of negotiating power for renters.

Islandwide, asking rents — not including Waikiki and Ala Moana Center — rose for the 13th consecutive quarter, or since the fourth quarter of 2012. Over that period asking rents have climbed 21.3 percent, according to a retail market report to be released today by Colliers International. A year ago the asking rent was $3.69.

Asking rents on the North Shore, Waikiki and Central Oahu soared by 41.1 percent, 37.7 percent and 22.5 percent, respectively, the report said.

Few tenants actually pay asking rents; typically they are able to negotiate lower leases depending on location and other factors.

Meanwhile, Oahu retail vacancy rates rose to 4.61 percent from 4.27 percent in the first quarter of 2015.

“Consumers are feeling confident, so they’re out spending money,” said Mike Hamasu, Colliers’ director of consulting and research. “You have an economy that is strengthening and benefiting from a lot of tourists coming to our market. All of that fuels interest in providing retail services to consumers. If you’re a retailer, you don’t want to spend more money on rent, but you’re attracted to the market because people are purchasing more goods and services.”

The strong rental market is encouraging developers to proceed on a number of projects.

Slated to open this year at Kapolei Commons is Roy Yamaguchi’s new restaurant, Eating House 1849, and Regal Cinemas’ new 56,000-square-foot, 12-screen theatre. The 277,000-square-foot International Market Place is expected to open in Waikiki this summer with Hawaii’s first Saks Fifth Avenue. And by the fall Ka Makana Alii, a regional mall in Kapolei, is scheduled to open with roughly 400,000 square feet of retail space.

“Developers have capitalized on the combination of healthy job growth, booming tourism activity and rapidly rising rents to spark a retail construction boom,” the report said. “By the end of 2016, developers will have added more than 1.1 million square feet of new retail space to the Oahu market.”