All 10 global business centers now have vacancy rates below 10%,a milestone in the ongoing worldwide recovery of commercial realestate, according to the survey. Globalization of trade andborderless movement of money have allowed key cities to rebound intandem relatively quickly from the real estate decline thatfollowed the technology bust in 2000.

Hong Kong, which was hit by the dotcom collapse and sufferedanother blow after the SARS outbreak in 2003, has rebounded quicklyand strongly. The city saw asking rents shoot up 37% in the past 12months to an average of $69.12 per sf as the vacancy rate fell to4.1%. And by mid-year Tokyo's vacancy rate of 0.6% was down from2.2% and spurred a 12% jump in average asking rent to $148.17 persf, according to the report.

London's asking rent rose 17% to an average of $163.23, andMadrid also logged a 17% increase, to a $43.18 average. London andMadrid vacancy stood at 5.7% and 8.2% respectively, at mid-year2006. And in Paris, asking rents rose to $80 per sf, up 5.1%, whilevacancy stood at 4.8%, down 0.7%.