Inner Central District Tokyo Becomes World"s Most Expensive Office Area

The Inner Central District of Tokyo has surpassed West End London as the world"s most expensive office area, according from the semi-annual study Global Office Occupancy Costs made by C.B. Richard Ellis Group Inc. (CBRE) Global Research and Consulting. West End London is currently the world"s most expensive office area, followed by Moscow, the Inner Central District Hong Kong (CBD) and the Outer Central District Tokyo, according to the CBRE report, which looks at the cost of office space in over 170 cities across the world. Mumbai, Dubai, Paris, London (City) and Dublin are next.

Global financial centres have been "most significantly affected by declining occupier demand and, as one would expect, registered the most material decreases in office rents," the report indicates. In many cases, the major markets for office space reported as much as a 20% decrease, or even more, in the occupancy costs for the past 12 months.

"The great global recession has clearly taken its toll on the world"s office markets, particularly those with significant concentrations of financial industry employers," Raymond Torto, CBRE"s Global Chief Economist, said. "The most expensive office markets, as measured in dollars, are considerably less expensive than a year ago and occupiers are now in a strong position to procure prime space at attractive costs," Torto added. For instance, Torto says, a year ago office space in West End London was nearly 300 USD per sq. ft., while today that space goes for 172 USD per sq. ft.