In Yekaterinburg, office rent has been rising slower than the acquisition prices over the last few years, with average rent growth coming to 10% to 15% a year, reports Yarmarka Real Estate.

Yarmarka’s experts say last year was like this as well since the average rent grew 11% and amounted to 860 RUR per square meter at the beginning of 2007. Last year, renting offices in office centers and business centers became 17% and 20% more expensive, respectively, and reached the point of 870 RUR and 1,015 RUR per square meter in January 2007. The price gap between class C offices and offices based in modern business centers is expected to keep widening.

The number of offices that can be let went up more than 55%, with the average area of an office actually going down from 200 square meters at the beginning of 2006 to 140 square meters one year later.