Tokyo came third in the list, which showed a continuing trend towards offices in the Asia-Pacific region picking up the pace as far as office rental increases are concerned. The top ten most expensive cities for office renting are now in the region, with Beijing’s central business district very much up there and featuring fourth in the list.
“The most expensive office markets are increasingly located in dynamic business centres across emerging economies as office occupiers diversify their global footprints in these markets to take advantage of rising incomes and the availability of labour,” commented Dr Raymond Torto, chief global economist at CBRE.
“The most expensive office occupier markets also have a diversified economic base; limited, available institutional quality space; strong currencies and are increasingly located in urban centres,” he said.
Moscow was rated as the fifth most expensive place to rent offices worldwide by CBRE, with Asia-Pacific and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) markets contributing equally to the top 50 with 19 cities each.
CBRE’s chief EMEA economist Peter Damesick suggested that the economic struggles of countries like Italy, Spain and Greece will eventually result in their increased competitiveness as office space markets with occupancy costs likely to decrease across their major cities.
While the West End of London office space market remains the second most expensive in the world, offices in the City of London are reportedly increasingly being taken up more by technology companies than by finance firms, as has traditionally been the case.
Editor’s notes: In 2022, Hong Kong was again ranked as the most expensive location in the world to rent office space. New York’s Midtown district was second, and the West End of London was third.
In 2023, according to Savills, the West End took first position, followed by Hong Kong, and the Midtown district of Manhattan took third.
The City of London was fourth, Tokyo was fifth, and Beijing was eighth. Moscow did not feature on the list of the 35 most expensive locations in the world, which is no surprise considering the Russo-Ukraine war that commenced in 2022.