London’s West End Emerges As World’s Most Expensive Office Space
London’s most favoured business area- the West End – has been found to be the most expensive business district in the world. At second place is Tokyo Inner Central District.
In the last such survey, the Inner Central Area in Tokyo stood at first place as the most expensive office location worldwide. However, with UK real estate markets looking up now and much interest being shown in office spaces here, London has once again taken the lead in the race. The third most expensive office space location is Tokyo’s Outer Circle.
The figures were revealed by a survey sponsored by CB Richard Ellis, which studied all global rental values to arrive at the conclusions. The report shows that on an average, a tenant will have to pay up around $186 per sq ft in London’s prime office space area. In Tokyo, he will spend about $173 per sq ft, with the Outer Circle offices garnering $138 per sq ft for prime office space.
These areas are followed by the Central Business District of Hong Kong and Moscow. Rents of $138 and $132 were found to be the typical rates in these areas.
Raymond Torto, Global Chief Economist at Richard Ellis, remarked that there are definite positive signs for the commercial real estate market. The offices to rent London sector that was witnessing huge drop in tenancy rates and rental values appears to be stabilising now. However, property values have not grown to match the upturn in the markets.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the market is indeed getting back on its feet after the long drawn recessive period, assured Torto. This is especially heartening in the face of the survey statistics, which show an 8% drop in annual office rentals over the 179 markets that were studied.
