"There won't be such a sharp divide" in 2009 betweenfast-growing markets such as Abu Dhabi and those with decliningrents such as London's West End, says Torto. Next year will seegrowth in occupancy costs--which averaged 8% among the 172 marketsmonitored in the survey--level off, he says.

And if the declines in occupancy costs from Q3 2007 to Q3 2008were steeper in London and Tokyo than in Midtown, Torto says it maybe that those two cities had a head start over New York City."London's West End started to see an adjustment about a year ago,"he says. However, even with a 17.2% decline in occupancy costs, theWest End remains the world's most expensive office market at$248.66 per square foot, compared to $98.06 in Midtown.

London's city financial district saw an even steeperyear-over-year decline of 18.9% to $148.16 per square foot, andTorto adds that prices of office buildings there are starting tofall along with occupancy costs. "That's not the case in New York,where you still have a buyer/seller gap and therefore notransactions as a result," he says. In Tokyo's Inner CentralDistrict, occupancy costs saw a 5.9% decrease to $184.26, while inthat city's Outer District, the fall-off was 11.2% to $151.69 persquare foot.