The report, from commercial real estate consultants Colliers, states that Bangkok even outstrips cities like Singapore and Manila.
Overall in Asia however Tokyo has the most office space available, with approximately ten times the square footage offered by Bangkok.
Patima Jeerapaet, Managing Director of Colliers in Thailand, said: “The service sector will be a key factor in the changes that will occur in 2015 and the fact that there is a significant amount of office space already and potential for more is a huge advantage for the city.”
He added that Bangkok’s readily available office space would act as a ‘springboard’ for economic success within the ASEAN zone.
Currently, Bangkok has 7,900,000 square metres of office space, with Singapore coming in second with a little over seven million. Cities like Manila, Kuala Lumpur and the Indonesian capital Jakarta lag behind but by slim margins, the report found.
Antony Picon, Associate Director for Research at Colliers said: “Other cities are catching up but opening up the service sector in Thailand should lead to the next wave of office development.”
Much of Bangkok’s office space is the result of a boom in the 1990s.
Picon did point out however that most commercial activity in Thailand takes place in Bangkok, whereas in other countries it is more widely spread.
“In the Philippines, there is a large office market in Cebu, Indonesia has Surabaya, Malaysia has Penang and Vietnam has an additional office market in Hanoi and Danang; in Thailand, it is limited to Bangkok”.
In 2010 the combined GDP of ASEAN was USD 1.8 trillion. Were it a single country ASEAN would rank as the 9th largest economy in the world, and the third-largest in Asia.
Editor’s notes:
Major ASEAN Cities | Total Office Stock in Q1 2023 (Million Square Metres) |
Kuala Lumpur | 13.08 |
Metro Manila – Makati, Tasuig, Pasig | 7.5 |
Jakarta | 6.9 |
Bangkok | 5.8 |
Singapore | 4.26 |
In 2022, the combined GDP of ASEAN, which comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, was USD 10.2 trillion.
If ASEAN was a single country it would rank as the third-largest economy in the world after the USA (USD 25.5 trillion) and China (USD 18.1 trillion), and the second-largest in Asia.
Japan would be the 4th largest in the world (USD 4.2 trillion) and would be relegated to the 3rd largest in Asia, from it’s current 2nd largest in Asia.