CB Richard Ellis Group Inc (CBRE) announced today that London’s West End position as the highest priced office market has been surpassed by the Tokyo’s Inner Central District according to the results of a recent survey conducted by the group.

The CBRE report tracks the price of office occupancy in over 170 cities and recently announced that Tokyo tops the listed followed by the former top London’s West End. Behind London in second place is Moscow, Tokyo’s Outer Central District, and Hong Kong’s Central Business District.

A large reason for the decline is the current global financial market which has affected the amount of businesses looking for office space and also the specialist services of office fitout contractors. As a result, the demand for office space has reduced leading to less occupancy costs overall with reports that in the last year most occupancy prices have decreased by about 20%.

In the face of the decline, a few cities of the 170 such as Marseille, France, Perth, Australia, and Charlotte (US) have seen an increase in occupancy costs but they are in part due to previously low costs or are emerging markets without much of a precedent. In other words, the general trend for occupancy costs in most major cities including London’s West End is down.

London’s West End suffered a formidable downfall as an office space in the area used to cost almost 300 USD per sq ft but currently sells for USD 172 per square foot according to Dr. Raymond Torto, the CBRE’s Global Chief Economist. Torto went on to say that areas with financial industry employers fared worse than other markets.

Comment RSS - Both comments and pings are currently closed.