ATLANTA—If you are looking for office space in Atlanta, which is one of the hottest tech markets in the nation, you should not only expect to pay a premium—you should expect to pay a heavy premium. So says a new CBRE research report.

The report analyzes the top 30 tech cities across the U.S. and Canada—and showed an aggregate rent premium of 11% across all 30 markets. That number jumps significantly higher in the hottest tech submarkets, including Santa Monica, which had the second-highest rent premium in North America, between Boston's East Cambridge at 87% and Mountain View (Silicon Valley) at 73%.

In Atlanta, the technology job growth rate has risen 7.8% between 2012 and 2014, above the 5.7% national rate and 22nd among the top 30. Atlanta also offers lower than average office rents, ranking 23rd nationally for office rent growth. Atlanta stands out as a potential destination for tech employers because of its affordability, CBRE says, and is also considered an emerging market with potential for continued growth.

“In 2013, tenants occupying less than 10,000 square feet in the creative and tech scene accounted for 204,898 square feet of new office leases in metro Atlanta,” said Dan Wagner, Southeast Research Manager. “By 2014 that number was 339,619 sq. ft. and in 2015 through the end of the second quarter, tech accounted for 175,884 sq. ft. This speaks to a pretty consistent demand trend that appears to be rising for startups and smaller TAMI (technology, advertising, media and information) companies. Also, not included are the larger and more established Atlanta TAMI companies, which have also consistently grown and flocked to Atlanta, particularly in recent years.”

In 2014, Atlanta had 67,024 tech jobs, with the North Fulton submarket leading Atlanta's tech scene. A high educational attainment rating of 35.2% of residents with a bachelor's degree or higher gives Atlanta a skilled labor force and places it as a top-five tech talent market, as previously reported by CBRE.

Georgia Tech is cultivating a startup culture to feed into the area's growing high-tech industry, which the real estate market continues to support. High-paying jobs associated with tech companies and Atlanta's low cost of living are attracting Millennials from universities in the south to Midtown and West Midtown. Additionally, Millennials and tech companies are flocking to the CBD, which includes Midtown, Buckhead and Downtown.

"The Millennial generation and its tech employers are looking for the play of imagination in the buildings they inhabit,” Suzanne Maynard, CBRE Workplace Strategy, tells GlobeSt.com. “Both expect spaces that can be reshaped on the fly to suit their changing needs, with amenities that cater to their social nature and their urban sensibilities. All of this points to a need for buildings to be repositioned, rethought, and upgraded. Every building type is in play—including Downtown towers—and tapping new technologies and systems makes recasting these assets cost-effective and return-on-investment attuned.”

Jeff Keppen, a top landlord representation office broker at CBRE's Atlanta office, has felt the tech boom firsthand, noting, TAMI related business is definitely the dominant player driving office activity. “Our team recognized the potential for tech growth in and around Atlanta and began creating speculative office environments that are attractive to that type of user,” he says. “It's a 'build it and they will come' mentality, with a flock effect. When a few TAMI companies choose an area, others follow and feed off of the tech ecosystem.”