Hong Kong overtakes London as priciest office market

Hong Kong's central business district (CBD) is the world's most expensive office market, underscoring Asia-Pacific's growing importance in the global commercial real estate market, according to CBRE's Prime Office Occupancy Costs survey.

The region also accounts for six of the top 10 most expensive occupier markets worldwide, according to the research. For the survey, CBRE tracks occupancy costs for prime office space in 133 markets around the globe.

Hong Kong's CBD led the 'most expensive' list with overall annual occupancy costs of $248 (EUR 202) per sq ft. This topped London’s West End, which, reported average occupancy costs of $220 per sq ft. Tokyo was the third most expensive market, followed by Beijing’s Jianguomen (CBD) and Moscow.

'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,' said Raymond Torto, CBRE's global chief economist. '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.'

Occupancy costs increased by an average 3.6% worldwide led by Asia-Pacific at 7.8%, the Americas at 5.0%, and EMEA at 0.4%.

In addition to London’s West End ranking as the world’s second-most expensive market, other markets in the region that top the list are Moscow, London’s City market, Paris and Geneva.