US Office Costs Increase Amid Global Decline

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.