A majority of the top ten most expensive cities around the world in which to rent office space are now to be found in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the latest report on the subject from the real estate services firm CBRE.
Topping the list as it often does was central Hong Kong, where offices in prime locations are hugely in demand from local businesses and international operators alike. Second came the West End of London, followed in order by the most central areas of Tokyo, Beijing and New Delhi.
The Finance Street and West Kowloon districts of Beijing and Hong Kong respectively were rated sixth and seventh in the list.
Average office space occupancy costs around the world increased by 2. 1 percent annually to December 2012, with the Americas and Asia-Pacific seeing the most notable rises, according to CBRE’s report. Prime occupancy costs fell however on average across the region taken as Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The City of London was rated as the ninth most expensive place in which to rent office space by the report, just behind Moscow, which was the only non-UK European representative in the top ten list.
CBRE’s chief global economist Dr Raymond Torto said: “The global office market recovery cooled over the past year, hampered by the ongoing European debt crisis, a deceleration of growth in emerging markets and ubiquitous uncertainty created by the ‘fiscal cliff’ in the US.
“However, tight market conditions, strong demand for high quality space and low levels of new construction continue to drive up occupancy costs in many prime office markets across the globe.”
A total of 133 major cities were tracked to inform the findings of CBRE’s report, with the real estate firm itself having a globe-spanning network of offices.