CHICAGO—The average annual costs of occupying a workstation declined 3.9% in 2014, but there were tremendous differences between the globe's different regions, according to DTZ. The company just released its 18th annual Global Office Thermometer, which measures the cost of office occupancy in 138 cities worldwide, and found that on a US dollar basis, the Asia Pacific region posting the greatest decline, 8.3%, followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa at 7.8%. A strong US economy, however, drove a 4.8% increase in North America, and Greater China posted a 2.4% increase.

“In many parts of the world, people are reconfiguring space to get more efficient,” Steven Quick, DTZ chief executive, global occupier services, tells GlobeSt.com, and that has certainly exerted downward pressure on costs in many markets. “Most of the clients we talk to are taking a hard look at that one way or another.” Still, the change in occupiers' costs seems to track quite closely with macro economic trends including the sharp depreciation of many local currencies against the US dollar.

“Europe is still pretty bleak,” he says. And the pessimistic outlook for that continent means occupier costs in the EMEA region will continue to stagnate. DTZ forecasts that costs will only rise on average 0.8% in 2015 and 2016. However, many markets with improving economic prospects and strengthening demand, such as London's West End, Dublin and Luxembourg, should see increases between 2% and 3%. “Overall, we expect global occupancy costs to increase just 0.5% over the next two years.”