Bangkok No 18 In Global Survey Of Office Rent Rises

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Bangkok No 18 In Global Survey Of Office Rent Rises

BANGKOK: -- Bangkok was ranked 18th in rises in office rents this year, with rates up 11.3 per cent over last year, according to a survey.

"With most grade A office buildings enjoying high occupancy rates, the limited amount of choice will continue to push rents higher," Nithipat Tongpun, executive director for office services at CBRE Thailand, said yesterday.

CBRE Global Research and Consulting's semi-annual survey of prime office occupancy costs found increased levels of demand and only limited future supply in the pipeline for the Bangkok office market. Rents for the best-quality, best-located buildings have been rising with Park Ventures Ecoplex achieving record rents.

The Asia-Pacific region holds increasing sway in the global commercial-real-estate market, as Hong Kong's central business district (CBD) was the world's most expensive office market and the region accounted for six of the 10 most expensive markets worldwide, according to the survey.

The region also accounted for the market with the strongest growth in occupancy costs, as Beijing's Jianguomen CBD saw costs rise 49.4 per cent over the past year.

Hong Kong's CBD led the "most expensive" list with overall occupancy costs equivalent to Bt7,078 per square metre per month. This topped London's West End, which, despite a 4.7-per-cent year-over-year increase, had total occupancy costs of Bt6,262.

Tokyo was the third-most-expensive market for office space, followed by Beijing's Jianguomen CBD and Moscow. Other Asia-Pacific markets in the top 10 were Beijing Finance Street (sixth), Hong Kong (West Kowloon) and New Delhi Connaught Place CBD (ninth).


CBRE tracks occupancy costs for prime office space in 133 markets around the globe. Of the 50 "most expensive" markets, 19 are in the Asia-Pacific region, 19 are in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and 12 in the Americas.

"The most expensive office locales are increasingly in dynamic markets across the emerging economies as office occupiers diversify their global footprints in these markets to take advantage of rising incomes and the availability of labour," said Raymond Torto, CBRE's global chief economist.

"The most expensive office-occupier markets also have a diversified economic base, limited available institutional-quality space, and strong currencies, and are increasingly located in urban centres."

Occupancy costs increased by an average 3.6 per cent worldwide, led by Asia-Pacific at 7.8 per cent, Americas at 5.0 per cent and EMEA at 0.4 per cent. Occupancy costs increased in 80 markets, decreased in 24, and saw no change in 29. Among the markets exhibiting the most significant gains were Beijing Jianguomen CBD along with Beijing's Finance Street and Guangzhou, China.

Beijing's rise was driven by strong demand, particularly from domestic financial institutions, combined with a lack of available space in Finance Street. Rounding out the five largest annual increases were San Francisco (downtown) and San Francisco's Peninsula market.

While comparisons in dollars are affected by currency exchange rates, annual per-cent-change calculations are based on occupancy costs in local currencies and measurements and not influenced by currency changes. Because of methodology changes in this report, comparisons with figures in previously released reports are not valid.

The Nation 2012-07-25