18.02.2008  Office rents rose an average of 14 percent worldwide in 2007 as demand grew from banks and brokerages in the U.S., U.K. and Asia. In the 10 most expensive office markets rents increased 40 percent last year, Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the world's largest closely held real estate brokerage, said today in a statement. Singapore moved into the global top 10 for the first time, with occupancy costs hitting an average of about $130 a square foot. Financial services firms are driving rent increases in cities including London, New York and Hong Kong, where the companies take as much as 60 percent of office space. Landlords are also getting more for space because rising construction costs have limited development, said Maria Sicola, executive managing director for research services at Cushman. ``We had strong and steady demand, and we really have had very little new supply in these global markets,'' Sicola said in an interview. ``It's really the financial-services sector that was really driving the rent growth.'' London remained the most expensive city, with rents in the city's West End rising 30 percent and total annual occupancy costs averaging $311.58 a square foot. Hong Kong moved up to second place from third last year, with annual occupancy costs of $238.58 a square foot. Tokyo dropped to third place from second, with $210.12 a square foot of annual costs. New York dropped one level from last year to 10th place. It's likely New York will move back up in the rankings because office space in the city ``is so tight and demand there is so strong,'' Sicola said. In Singapore rents for top-tier space rose 78 percent. That allowed it to move up 10 spots in the ranking to 7th place. The total annual office occupancy cost averaged $130.48 a square foot there last year, making it more expensive than New York City's midtown Manhattan district, where the average cost was $100.28 a foot. Rent growth in Singapore was helped by demand from banking and business services, along with a limited supply of top-tier office space, Cushman said. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP leased 441,320 square feet of office space in London last year, while Standard Chartered Plc added 508,298 square feet in Singapore and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. leased 414,575 square feet in Manhattan, Cushman said. Singapore's strong performance, along with rent increases in Mumbai, Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, helped give the Asia Pacific region the most growth of any region, with rents rising 23 percent last year. / Source: Bloomberg Возврат к списку новостей