An Analysis of Office Market Rent in Colombo 03

Abstract

Abstract
Office Market is one such area which has not yet been addressed deeply by the scholars in Sri Lanka. Office market related studies in the country seem not prominent. The reasons for that may be higher complexities in identifying an exact office market in Sri Lanka, even though most of other countries have well demarcated office markets such as New York Manhattan Office Market, Hong Kong Office Market, and Berlin Office Market etc. Office properties become one of the important aspects of the property market as well as of the economy of the country where all most service sector activities are taken place. Beside lack of studies on office rent determinants, hide progress of office rent market. Arbitrary decision of landlords on fixing of office rent may further affect negatively to rental market. This study, aims to analysis the determinants of the rent for office space in Colombo 03. The theoretical background of this study is associated to the hedonic price model, which is widely applied to analyze price or rental price variations of the real estate properties. In the data collection process, quantitative data were collected. Questionnaires were distributed to 38 Grade A, B, C office buildings in Colombo 03 area. To collect qualitative data, the author has conducted several discussions with different company owners and top management personally to get a basic awareness about the area of research study. The Result shows that facilities of the building have a significant impact on the rent, hence structural characters and legal perspectives have considerable amount of impact on the rent. Further it shows that locational factors do not significantly impact on the rent.
Keywords: Office Market, Rent Determinants