In London's West End, Class A room costs $184.85 per square foot.
Washington, DC is the least expensive of the 50 largest markets in the United States, at $51.74 per square foot.
At $172 per square foot, Tokyo (Inner Central) is Asia's most expensive rental market. عقارات
In 2009, rents in 50 of the 179 markets tracked dropped by 50%.
Rents have dropped 36.8% in Abu Dhabi.
According to Raymond Torto of CBRE, the sector has reached a point of stabilization.
At $60.78 per square foot, Toronto is the most expensive office market in Canada.
The office markets in Aberdeen, Scotland, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, both grew by more than 10%.
(LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA) — If you just need a 10 x 10 cubicle office in London's trendy West End area, you'll have to pay $18,485 per year in rent. This works out to $184.85 per square foot.
The same size room in Washington, DC would set you back $5,174 per year. This works out to just $51.74 per square foot.
Who, on the other hand, works in a 100-square-foot office?
According to the most recent CB study, there are few, if any, professionals or businesses. The semi-annual Global Office Rents survey by Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (CBRE) Global Research and Consulting.
According to the report, London's West End is once again the most expensive office market in the world.
The Inner Central market in Tokyo has fallen to second position, followed by the Outer Central market. In the CBRE survey, which monitors office occupancy costs in 179 cities around the world, Hong Kong's Central Business District (CBD) and Moscow are ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.
Prime office occupancy costs are falling in many markets around the world. Over the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2009, the global adjustment in prime office occupancy costs of the 179 markets tracked showed an average decrease of 7.7%. (in local currency and on an un-weighted average basis).
The majority of markets - 131 in all - saw rents drop by double digit percentage points year over year, with nearly 50 seeing rents drop by double digit percentage points.
Many of the world's bellwether financial centers, like Hong Kong Central CBD (-40.7 percent) and New York Midtown (-29.7 percent), as well as emerging markets like Ho Chi Minh City (-45.4 percent) and Abu Dhabi, are at the top of the list of fastest changing markets (-38.6 percent ).
Kiev saw the world's biggest year-over-year drop in office occupancy rates, down 64.6 percent from the previous year's levels.
"While there are indications that commercial real estate prices are stabilizing in some Asian markets and parts of London, underlying property fundamentals remain poor," CBRE's Global Chief Economist, Dr. Raymond Torto, said.
"However, the office sector could be on the verge of transitioning from intensive care to stabilization - the first step toward recovery."
Positive growth was seen in forty-one countries.
Not all markets have been as affected by the global demand downturn, and demand for office space has proved resilient in some areas due to local market dynamics. Aberdeen, Scotland and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil both grew by more than 10%.
The study discusses how fluctuations in the value of the dollar versus the respective local currency impact office occupancy costs calculated in dollars. "As a result, when translated into US dollars, office occupancy costs are influenced by both local market dynamics of supply and demand, as well as currency shifts," the study says.
Asia-Pacific area
With occupancy costs of $172 per sq. ft., Tokyo (Inner Central) was Asia's most expensive market, while Tokyo's Outer Circle market was second with occupancy costs of $139 per sq. ft. With occupancy costs of $138 per sq. ft., Hong Kong (CBD) comes in second.
The other two Asia-Pacific cities on the list of the world's top ten most expensive cities were Mumbai and New Delhi.
Singapore (-53.4 percent), Ho Chi Minh City (-45.4 percent), and Hong Kong (over 30 percent) are the office markets in the Asia Pacific region that have seen the most declines in the last year. In the Asia-Pacific area, there were 17 cities where office occupancy costs fell by double digits.
Europe is a continent that has a
At $184.5 per square foot, London's West End was the most expensive office market in the world. With occupancy costs of $132 per square foot, Moscow came in second in Europe. Dubai, Paris, and the City of London were all among the top ten most expensive cities in the world.
Kiev saw the world's biggest year-over-year drop in office occupancy rates, down 64.6 percent from the previous year's levels.
Moscow, Oslo, Warsaw, and Dublin are among the European markets where prices are falling the most. There were 17 cities in the EMEA area with double-digit decreases in office occupancy costs.
The Americas
Rio de Janeiro and So Paolo, both in Brazil, have surpassed New York's Midtown as the most luxurious office site in the Americas.
Rio de Janeiro came in 12th on the global list with occupancy costs of $87 per sq. ft., while So Paulo came in 16th with occupancy costs of $82 per sq. ft. With occupancy costs of $69 per square foot, New York's Midtown market has fallen to seventh in the Americas and 24th globally.
The Americas were led by Boston's CBD, which fell 33.9 percent year over year, followed by New York's Downtown and Midtown markets.
In North America, fifteen markets fell by double digits. Meanwhile, Latin America outperformed the rest of the country, with just six cities losing ground, including Buenos Aires, Argentina, which lost 6.3 percent of its population.
"Nobody is hearing anything about any major tenants coming to town," Mark Kolke, a leasing agent at MaxComm Realty Advisors in Calgary, Alberta, tells the Toronto Globe and Mail.
He expects the dire leasing situation "to get worse before it gets better," because "tenants are playing musical chairs right now as they look for rooms."
"Some landlords are holding firm on costs, but then giving away months and months of free rent to keep tenants happy," says Bill Argeropoulos, research director at Avison Young Commercial Real Estate in Toronto.
"It all comes down to jobs," Mark Rose, president of Avison Young, tells the Globe and Mail. "Some cities didn't see employment fall quite as much, particularly provincial capitals."
"We are seeing a cyclical crisis, not a paradigm shift," Rose says. "When you've been in business as long as we have, you know that (real estate markets) have cycles," he says.