Office space in Singapore’s central business district is listed as the
8th most expensive in the world, with rents almost similar to that of
Fifth Avenue in New York, one of the world’s most expensive shopping
streets, a report from Jones Lang LaSalle revealed.
Renting an
office space in Raffles Place and Marina Bay costs US$103 psf (S$127)
per year, or close to rents in midtown Manhattan at US$104 psf (S$128)
per year.
The St James district in London’s West End, home to
world-leading hedge and sovereign wealth funds as well as niche wealth
managers, topped the list at US$194 psf (S$240) per year. This was
followed by Central, Hong Kong and Finance Street, Beijing at US$162 psf
(S$200) and US$137 psf (S$169) per year respectively.
Rue du
Rhone, Geneva clinched 4th spot while Silicon Valley, California and
Moscow’s Kremlin area placed 5th and 6th respectively.
Rounding
up the top 12 on the list are Paris’ Champs Elysées area (9th);
Marunouchi, Tokyo (10th); Zurich’s Uraniastrasse and Paradeplatz area
(11th); and Lujiazui in Shanghai (12th).
Jeremy Kelly, Director
of Research at Jones Lang LaSalle, expects the same mix of global cities
to dominate the list in the coming years, although the order will
change considering the rise of technology and mobile sectors as well as
sector-driven market conditions.
For instance, Silicon Valley is expected to move up the list as tech-driven demand boosts rental rates.
“With
premium rents in the CBDs of a number of U.S. cities now increasing, we
can expect to see additional U.S. markets ranking among the Most
Expensive over the next 24 months,” noted Kelly.
But market dynamics can adversely affect other areas.
“Tokyo
was the most expensive market for office space in the world for many
years…but it was hit hard by the global financial crisis and has been
surpassed by other Asian power cities,” Kelly added.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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