Sydney remains ninth most expensive office rental market in the world: Cushman & Wakefield

The Sydney CBD market has maintained its ninth-placed ranking among the list of the most expensive locations in the world to rent office space.

Sydney has an occupancy cost of €992 per square metre, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s Office Space Across the World 2013 report

Occupancy costs include base rent, turnover rent and other outgoings and expenses.

The  top ten list is headed by London’s West End (€2,137 per square metre), which regained its crown from Hong Kong’s Central Business District (€1,505 per square metre),

The biggest upward move was made by Rio de Janeiro’s Zona Sul which went from eighth most expensive office market to third most expensive.

Managing director of Cushman & Wakefield Australia David Woolford says Sydney’s ninth place ranking in terms of global office occupancy costs confirms its position as a world class financial centre.

“This ranking reflects the premium standard of office stock available in Sydney and we expect Barangaroo will raise the bar even higher.

“It is interesting to note there is only a 6-10% differential between the destinations ranked 6 to 10 in this research and Sydney is consistently ranked in the top ten in terms of occupancy costs in the world,” he says.

Top 10 most expensive office locations by country
2012 rank	2013 rank	country	city	location	occupancy cost (€/sq.m/year)	Occupancy Cost (US$/sq.ft/year)
2	1	UK	London	West End	2,137	262
1	2	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	CBD	1,505	184
8	3	Brazil	Rio de Janeiro	Zona Sul	1,343	165
5	4	India	New Delhi	Connaught Place	1,324	162
3	5	Japan	Tokyo	CBD (5 Central Wards)	1,274	156
4	6	Russia	Moscow	CBD	1,141	140
6	7	China	Beijing	CBD	1,074	132
7	8	USA	New York	Midtown (Madison/5th Avenue)	1,052	129
9	9	Australia	Sydney	CBD	992	122
10	10	France	Paris	CBD	915	112

 Source: Cushman & Wakefield