Strong demand for high-quality office space in Rio saw the associated cost of renting rise by as much as 47 per cent in 2010, pushing the city to the top of Cushman & Wakefield’s list of the most expensive office space in the Americas.
The cost of renting office space in Rio de Janeiro is now around US$120 per square foot, compared with $115 per square foot for the same space in Manhattan.
On a global basis, office space in Hong Kong is now rated as the most expensive to rent, just ahead of London’s West End, where typical prime rents rose by 27 per cent last year and currently cost roughly $233 per square foot.
Tokyo came in third in the list of the world’s most expensive office markets, but Rio’s surging prices were enough to take it from 13th to fourth in the latest table compiled by Cushman & Wakefield’s analysts.
London’s West End, in particular, and the city as a whole were able to buck the trend across the rest of Europe, where the cost of renting an office rose by just one per cent in 2010. Meanwhile, South America saw the most dramatic regional growth, with a continent-wide increase of nearly 12 per cent.
Back in January, Cushman & Wakefield reported that London is the world’s largest property investment market, ahead of Tokyo and Paris, which ranked second and third, respectively.
Around the same time, figures showed that the number of newly leased offices in Manhattan increased by a full 61.4 per cent over the course of 2010, which was taken to be a positive indicator for the New York office market.
Editor’s notes: In 2022, according to JLL’s Premium Office Rent Tracker (PORT), Midtown Manhattan was the most expensive place in America, with a gross effective cost of $220 per square foot per year.
The 2nd most expensive place to rent office space was Silicon Valley at $149 per square foot, followed by Midtown South at $132 per square foot.
Miami at $106 per square foot was in 4th place, followed by Downtown Manhattan at $102 per square foot per annum.
In 2022, Rio de Janeiro was the 30th most expensive place to rent office space in the world, with a gross effective rent of $18 per square foot per year.
Research conducted in June 2026 found that Savills, in its Global Occupier Markets: Prime Office Costs – Q4 2025, identified London’s West End as the most expensive location for office space; Hong Kong was second; Midtown New York was third; and the City of London was fourth.
Rio de Janeiro did not appear on the list of the 40 most expensive locations.
Colliers reported in February 2026 that the Rio de Janeiro office market reached its lowest vacancy rate since 2016, ending 2025 at 21 per cent.
The most expensive location in Rio de Janeiro in 2025 was Zona Sul, with the best office space in the market quoted at BRL 300 per square metre per month.
As of June 24th 2026, Google provided an exchange rate of 1 Brazilian Real equaling 0.19 dollars.
Therefore, BRL 300 was equal to 57.40 US dollars.
Converting this to a per-square-foot, per-year basis equates to $63.99 per square foot per year.
By comparison, the best office space in Manhattan’s most expensive location, Midtown, in 2025 was quoted at $191.02 per square foot per year.