Rents up as public sector expands

Rents for top-grade offices have risen 20 per cent to 30 per cent a year in the past few years. Rents are now often more than $425 a square metre and rising, compared with about $250 a square metre three years ago.

"It would not be surprising to see rents go above $500 a square metre in the next 24 months, because of a shortage of stocks," one property specialist said.

The city's biggest and best buildings, such as the Majestic Tower, HSBC Tower and Bowen House, are full and many others are close to full. Trade and Enterprise recently took 3000sq m of space in the Majestic Centre and Foreign Affairs has about 10 floors in HSBC Tower.

"The Government has been a big taker of space and have signed a number of new building deals in recent times, and I'd expect them to continue to do so," the property specialist said.

He expected more than 6000 new government jobs this year and many of those were expected to be in Wellington.

A wide range of government departments and agencies are advertising heavily for staff, from ACC, the auditor-general's office, Defence, Health Ministry, Wellington and Hutt hospitals, as well as local and regional government. Government-related jobs were a big feature in the 16 per cent leap in job advertisements to almost 4200 in the Wellington region last month, though some of those were repeated ads because companies could not get workers the first time.

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