In my most recent trip to Hong Kong, I shared my thoughts here. We will be CLOSER to one another in the future; space shortage. I wrote about how space is a huge premium in Hong Kong. Well, in a recent report following cities were mentioned. Hong Kong Central, Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai, Delhi and Hong Kong, Island East. These 6 are among the top 10 priciest offices in the world! Sorry, Singapore is NOT within the list even if it is still the world’s most expensive city. (As per Worldwide Cost of Living report 2016) According to an article in Starbiz, the top 10 priciest office rental as per JLL’s latest Global Premium Office Rent Tracker are as follows:
Top 10 Most Expensive City Districts for Renting Office Space
1. Hong Kong, Central
2. London, West End
3. New York, Midtown
4. Beijing
5. Tokyo
6. Shanghai
7. Delhi
8. San Francisco
9. London, City
10. Hong Kong, Island East
According to the JLL’s tracker, Hong Kong’s Central District’s rentals are more than 50% higher than the rates offered in London and New York. In fact it has hit a record high of approximately RM1,300 (US$302) per sq ft per year to rent, a 15% increase from a year ago. It said main reason was due to shortage of supply with companies from Mainland China buying and owning even more of Hong Kong. With such a high price however, this will start to push demand out to nearby growing core districts. Two other China’s big cities, namely Beijing and Shanghai has slipped down the rankings because New York and Tokyo has outperformed them respectively. Tokyo is also helped by the fact that the Yen has also strengthened considerably against US$ within the past 12 months period. It was US$1 to Yen123 just 12 months ago. Today (5th Dec 2016), it’s at US$1 to Yen 114.
It’s good to note that the rental on a price per sq ft in Kuala Lumpur is definitely not going to propel us anywhere near these top ten cities. Not even in Asia. The only thing we must keep focusing on would be how to get more regional head quarters to be opened in Kuala Lumpur instead of other ASEAN cities. For these, the focus should been infrastructure readiness and talent pool. Do we have them? Well, we are building them and as for talent pool, there’s still me. There’s also a huge pool of awesome professionals who are kopiandproperty.my readers too. Happy following.
written on 5th Dec 2016
next suggested article: Rental is softening. Good news I guess
Leave a Reply