According to the company, each of the five global cities expected to see the strongest rises in office space costs is located in the region, with multinational operators increasingly aiming to expand their businesses in Asian economies such as China and India.
Office space in Hong Kong is already the most expensive to rent anywhere in the world, and the former British-Chinese city leads the way among dynamic Asian office markets, while Singapore, Bangalore, Beijing and Chennai are not all that far behind.
DTZ expects the typical cost of renting office space in the Asia Pacific to rise by 3.7 per cent annually over the next four years, with much of this growth to come from cities where rates are currently relatively low.
The price of renting Grade-A office space in leading Asian cities will be driven upward by a lack of ready supply and the sheer strength of demand from multinationals. As a result, cost growth over the next few years could well double the rates achieved in most European and North American markets.
Reflecting on the fastest-growing market in the region, DTZ’s head of Asia-Pacific research said: “Hong Kong is traditionally a volatile and cyclical market, responding very quickly to economic highs and lows.
“This is reflected in the fact that the prime rent took only one year to recover its ground in the wake of the financial crisis. We forecast that Hong Kong will continue to outpace other markets in the region, with the gap between it and other centres widening as occupancy costs increase.”
A report from Cushman & Wakefield covering similar subjects recently put Hong Kong at the top of its list of the world’s most expensive office space markets, surpassing London’s West End with strong growth in 2010.
Editor’s notes: In the Editor’s notes in this article about the world’s most expensive offices, it can be seen that the Central District in Hong Kong was the most expensive place in the world to rent office space in 2022, with the best in class office space commanding USD 259 per square foot per year (gross effective).
Among the 5 cities mentioned in this article, Finance Street in Beijing ranked 2nd that same year, commanding $167 per square foot per annum for prime office space.
Singapore was 3rd of the 5 at $110 per square foot per annum, Bangalore (Bengaluru) was 4th at $47 per square foot per annum, and Chennai was 5th at $19 per square foot per annum.
Research conducted in June 2026 found that Savills had researched the prime office costs across major office markets in Q4 2025.
Savills compared Net Effective Cost to the occupier. The firm stated that it had used “the adjusted annual all-in occupancy cost represents real-time transaction terms for 20,000 square feet (2,000 square metres) of usable space based on a basket of the top five most expensive properties to calculate ultra-prime average.”
The firm took into account average incentives, such as rent-free periods and fit-out costs and “reported in an annual, standardised format of USD per sq ft of usable space to account for variations in currency, reflect local payment protocols, and adjust for measurement practices across the globe.”
The study found that the West End of London was the most expensive location in which to rent office space in Q4 2025, with a net effective rent of $336.65 per square foot per annum.
Hong Kong was the second at $227.68 per square foot.
Regarding the four other Asia Pacific locations, Singapore was 9th in the global rankings at $156.13 per square foot.
Beijing was 19th at $97.65 per square foot.
Bangalore and Chennai were not featured in Savills’ list of 40 most expensive locations in which to rent office space.
However, Knight Frank reported that prime office rents had risen by 14 per cent year on year in Q1 2026, the highest rental growth in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Prime office rents were quoted at $42.66 per square foot per annum (not adjusted for incentives or fit-out).
In Q1 2026, the most expensive office rent in Chennai was quoted at the equivalent of $17.52 per square foot per annum (not adjusted for incentives or fit-out).