Office rents in Hong Kong's tallest skyscraper, Two International Financial Centre (Two IFC), have been raised to more than $100 per square foot - a fivefold increase on the $20 per sq ft at which the development first came to the market when it opened for business in the first half of 2003.
As befits the highest building in Hong Kong - at 88 floors and 420 metres - the rents remain the highest in the city after the latest adjustment from $93 per sq ft.
Launched at the bottom of Hong Kong's property cycle, the IFC complex, developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties and Henderson Land Development, could find tenants only by charging an effective rental of $20 per sq ft after taking into consideration rent-free periods offered as an inducement.
But the economic recovery since Two IFC's opening has driven Grade-A office rents up more than 120 per cent in the past two years.
Midland Realty assistant sales director Eric Ong Hung-chung believes tenants who got in early now face rent rises of between 140 and 180 per cent when their leases come up for renewal in the middle of this year.
The property agency said IFC's landlord had rented a small unit in One IFC on a high level for $93 per sq ft last month and the asking rental for a 2,000 sq ft unit on the 67th floor was now about $98 per sq ft.
Henderson Land sales department general manager Tony Tse Wai-chuen said asking rentals at Two IFC had now risen to over $100 per sq ft due to the shortage of office space in Central.