If there’s one thing Hong Kong does better than any other city in the world, it’s commanding astronomical prices for its tiny office spaces.
We’re number one!
The rents for office space in some of Hong Kong’s skyscrapers are the highest in the world. On average, lease rates for the top floors are about two thirds more than in New York.
Data from London property broker Knight Frank LLP shows that in the second half of last year, rents for high-rise properties in Hong Kong climbed an additional 11.3 percent to approximately HKD1,945 for one square foot!
Think about how much financial pain your boss must be in the next time you want to complain about your tiny workspace.
James Roberts, head of the broker’s commercial research, told Bloomberg, “[Hong Kong’s] a very successful, fast-growing city that happens to be in a geographically constrained area. You hit the barriers and then prices can only be driven up.”
There are currently 79 skyscrapers worldwide with a height of 300 meters or more (that’s about 65 or so floors), up from just 19 in 2009. Thirty-two of these are in China.
With the Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect launched in November and a Shenzhen linkup also on the cards, Chinese financial companies have been on a renting frenzy in the Kong.
Data from commercial real estate company CBRE shows that last year Chinese financial companies rented 148,000 square feet of office space here, up more than 50 percent from 2013.
Photo: David Guyler via Flickr
