Tokyo has been toppled from the top of the office cost rankings as London's West End enters 2010 as the most expensive location in the world to occupy office space in, according to DTZ's latest Global Occupancy Costs survey. Ranked fifth in last year's survey, London's West End has leapt to the top, displacing Tokyo. It also jumps above Paris, Dubai and Hong Kong, which were ranked second, third and fourth in 2009.

The rise of London's West End is due to it experiencing a short, sharp rental correction in 2008. This is in contrast with Tokyo and Hong Kong, which saw their rents decline during the course of 2009. Overall, all of the top ten global locations experienced either negative or neutral growth in occupancy costs during 2009.

The report, a guide to total office occupancy costs across 116 business districts in 47 countries and territories, is DTZ's 13th annual survey and assesses the main components of occupancy costs in major office markets across the globe.

The sharpest falls within the global ranking were recorded in those markets which have seen significant rental growth in recent years, most notably Singapore and Kyiv, which both saw occupancy costs plummet by 51% year-on-year.

According to the report, Singapore felt the impact of the global economic crisis particularly badly, as weak occupier demand collided with a substantial amount of new supply to drag down rents and thus total occupancy costs.