London still heads the world chart of cities with the most expensive rentals of office and industrial areas, according to the latest survey from international consultancy King Sturge.
Monthly office rentals in London's West End currently average 180.58 euro a sq m and those in the City of London are at 112.25 euro a sq m.
Moscow, Paris and Dublin are among the ten most expensive cities in the world.
The survey shows that, taken as a whole, the office market during the second half of 2007 displayed a robust performance.
Around 67 per cent of tenants declare that their rental expenditure has increased by 5.3 per cent in Europe and 12.8 per cent in Asia.
London proved the most expensive city in terms of industrial space rentals. Prices recorded in Dublin, Oslo and various other UK cities are also among the leaders in this respect.
Demand for industrial areas in the second half of 2007 was high, according to King Sturge. A total of 47 per cent of researched locations marked stable prices and about 40 per cent registered a price increase.
The highest rise – 7.5 per cent, was recorded in Southeast Asia and in Europe it stood at 1.4 per cent.
CBRE consultants also have recorded a significant demand for office developments in Europe last year. The volume of occupied space totalled 10 million sq m, not marking a great change on the previous year.
Although some clients, particularly those in the financial sector, grew more circumspect, activity levels also remained strong over the fourth quarter of the year, reaching 2.5 million sq m in rented office space.
Despite the fluctuations recorded in some places, the market’s foundations remained robust at the end of the year. Certain countries like Germany registered heightened activity with rent levels soaring beyond the levels of previous quarters. CEE markets feature high rent levels, propelled by the fast growth pace of national economies.
Some prime financial hubs, such as London and Madrid, exhibited a lower demand towards the end of 2007, stemming from the surging credit crisis that diminished the activities of large financial companies. The latter did not affect CEE countries - or at least the impact was not particularly tangible – so accounting for the growth of rental demand. The Frankfurt market, for instance, recorded a 13 per cent annual hike in demand.
