Perth's CBD office market has been tipped to become the most expensive in the nation, according to a new forecast by CB Richard Ellis.
CBRE global research and consulting senior manager Luke Nixon said the resources boom had resulted in average office rents in Perth and Brisbane "race ahead" of the traditional most expensive market, Sydney, in recent months.
"Forecasts indicate that growth in both Perth and Brisbane will remain consistent between 2011 and 2015, while growth in Sydney will be more sporadic," Mr Nixon said.
"As a result, the Perth CBD is expected to be the nation's most expensive office market on average by the end of 2015, although it will be briefly challenged by Sydney over the next couple of years. "
Mr Nixon said premium buildings in Sydney's CBD continued to command the highest office rents in Australia, however.
The CBRE report follows on from property market analyst DTZ's global office occupancy costs survey released early this month, which ranked Perth as the 19th most expensive city in the world for office accommodation.
Sydney was Australia's most expensive city, ranked 14th globally at $US12,750 per workstation, while Perth moved 10 spaces up the ranks from the previous survey to rank 19th at $US11,470.
Perth was followed by Brisbane, ranked 30th, Melbourne, ranked 44th, Canberra (69th) and Adelaide (70th).
The DTZ report forecast Perth occupancy costs to grow between 2.6 per cent to 5 per cent by 2015.
