Hong Kong tops the list of cities for most expensive office space. The list is based on rental prices from the second half of 2009. Colliers International just released these rankings. Now to put this into context, Colliers says all regions around the world are still showing high vacancies and falling rents, but Asia and Latin America are beginning to show signs of growth.
So here is the list of cities with the most expensive rent for prime office space. No.1 is Hong Kong at $161.14 a square foot. Coming in behind is London's West End at $139.43 a square foot. And then there is Tokyo, just north of $100. Then there is the City of London, just under $100 a square foot. And also Rio De Janeiro, at $95.62 a square foot. Rio may seem a bit surprising.
Colliers at Latin America expert says the main reason is a strong demand in the past few years of prime office space and a little supply because of the layout of the city. He also said Rio is home to many major Brazilian companies, namely energy giant, Petrobras which is the largest company in Latin America. As for why Hong Kong tops the list? The return of financial companies and new hedge funds looking for space.
Pauline Chiou, cnn, Hong Kong.
