LONDON-The city's West End has unseated Hong Kong-Central as the world's most expensive office market, but Asia continues to dominate the world's most expensive office locations, accounting for four of the top five markets. This, according to CBRE Global Research and Consulting's semi-annual Global Prime Office Occupancy Costs survey.

The study also found that rents are rising fastest in the Americas, where real estate fundamentals continue to improve. Overall, the Americas accounted for eight of the 10 markets with the fastest growing occupancy costs with Boston (Downtown), Mexico City and San Francisco (Downtown) included among the top five.

London's West End's overall occupancy costs of US $259.36 per sq. ft. per year topped the “most expensive” list. Hong Kong-Central followed with total occupancy costs of US $234.30. Beijing's Finance Street, Beijing's Central Business District (CBD) and Hong Kong's West Kowloon rounded out the top five.