London's West End remains most expensive office market: CBRE

London's West End continues to be the world's most expensive office market, according to CB Richard Ellis' semi-annual Global Office Rents survey. The CBRE rankings track occupancy costs for prime office space in 175 cities around the globe. Hong Kong's Central Business District (CBD) continued in second place and also recorded the fastest year-over-year occupancy cost rise with a 34.2% increase.

Tokyo's Inner Central remained the third most expensive market for office space, Mumbai held its fourth place on the list while Moscow remains fifth.

'Major markets in emerging economies feature prominently at the top of the list of most expensive office costs as measured in dollars per square foot,'said Dr. Raymond Torto, CBRE’s Global Chief Economist. 'This pattern developed just a few years ago and it is more pronounced today.'

EMEA continues to have the most markets on the top 50 list with 30 markets. London's West End topped the ranking with an occupancy cost of US$193.69 per sq. ft., up from US$182.94 per sq. ft. six months ago. In Moscow occupancy costs come to US$128.33 per sq. ft., London (City) averages US$124.59 per sq. ft, Paris US$115.72 per sq. ft, and Dubai US$95.32 per sq. ft.

EMEA showed some signs of stabilization as the Eurozone recovery continued. Less than one-third of all EMEA markets posted occupancy cost gains. London City posted the largest gain for the region as its occupier costs grew by 17.5%, followed by Tel Aviv (13.4%). The largest declines were again among markets impacted by real estate overbuilding and speculation, such as Dubai (-12.5%) and Dublin (-12.4%). Twenty-eight of these markets experienced declines and 16 markets saw occupancy costs for the year rise.

While comparisons in dollars are affected by currency exchange rates, annual percent change calculations are based upon occupancy costs in local currency and measurement and not influenced by currency changes.