Hong Kong Tops the List (Again) for Most Expensive Office Spaces

According to Forbes, Hong Kong has once again topped Collier International’s global office real estate rankings. Since the previous year, the exotic locale’s prime office space has risen from an annual price of $142 per square foot in 2010 to $192 per square foot this year.

Following behind in second place is London’s West End at $133 per square foot, with Tokyo, Paris, and the City of London coming together to comprise the list’s top five entries. Researchers from Colliers International predict that Hong Kong’s prime office market will continue to rise this year due to a continued imbalance between supply and demand.

These predictions in trends is solidified by news that Russian finance billionaire Yuri Milner, an investor in Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon, is opening an office in Hong Kong, along with a Reuters report stating that he is also staking claim on the 67th floor of the city’s International Finance Center 2.

Milner, however, is not alone in his decision to expand into this rapidly growing market. Billionaire financiers such as George Soros, John Paulson, and Julian Robertson have already either opened new offices or have obtained licenses to operate in Hong Kong.

With all these reports indicative of China’s rapidly growing economy and the new explosion of wealth in the nation, it is of no surprise that many global financial players are choosing to expand there. Additionally, a record 115 billionaires from China made the 2011 Billionaires list last month, an enormous increase from just 64 a year earlier, making China second only to the United States.

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