London cheaper than rival financial centres for locating staff

London has outperformed its rival financial centres when it comes to the cost of locating 100 staff. The city is 25 per cent cheaper than New York, according to estate agency Knight Frank.

The 2018 Global Cities report compared the cost of locating staff in top global cities and estimated that the total average cost of employing 100 members of staff in conventional office space in London is $5,228,140 per year, compared to $6,938,000 in New York.

Lower  

Average costs in London were also found to be lower than the city’s other rival financial centres. Hong Kong has the highest office rental costs in the world. The average cost of locating staff to Hong Kong is estimated to be $5,964,990.

Although it is one of the top business locations in the world, London came in sixth place in the report. The city offers lower prices for businesses in other leading world cities, but still continues to be one of Europe’s most expensive locations.

Zurich topped the 2018 Global Cities report, with businesses paying $7,947,260 per year to locate 100 staff as a result of salary costs in the banking and asset management sectors.

Incentive

Commenting on London’s position in the report, Lee Elliott, Head of Commercial Research at Knight Frank, said that London is one of the world’s top three business locations, but it ranks just sixth on the list of costs – this provides an incentive for global companies to choose London, especially those in the financial services and tech sector, which need to attract and retain the best workers in state-of-the-art workspace.

He added that while rival European cities offer lower property and employment costs, many global firms are going to view this as a false economy – other cities in Europe are unable to match London’s highly skilled human capital and its longstanding pre-eminence as a centre of world business.