How the RealTimes Prime Rent Index works

What does prime rent mean here?

• The prime rent is the headline rent a broker publishes for the best office space in a city's main business district: the top of the market, not an average of all leases.
• RTPRI does not calculate rents of its own. It collects the prime figures brokers publish and checks them against each other.

Which areas count?

Each city is measured in its main business district, named next to the city on the index. Where a market only publishes a citywide prime figure, the index says so.

• Paris: QCA (Quartier Central des Affaires, Paris CBD)
• Munich: City (prime CBD segment)
• Madrid: Madrid prime (citywide headline; no source isolates a CBD figure)
• Budapest: Budapest prime (CBD equivalent; only Cushman & Wakefield labels its figure CBD)
• Warsaw: City Centre / CBD (central zones, prime)
• Vienna: CBD / Innere Bezirke (citywide prime rent; CBRE figure is inner districts)
• Milan: CBD Duomo
• Bucharest: CBD (Central Business District)
• London: West End

Where a market reports by district, a broker figure that names no district is not counted.

Where do the numbers come from?

• From the research property brokers publish: market reports, quarterly updates and press releases.
• Every figure is a quote on a live page, and each broker's name on the index links to where it was published.
• Some figures are quoted through a news outlet that reproduces the broker's own release, for example when the broker's site cannot be reached. The index still credits the broker.

Brokers quoted in the Q2 2026 edition:

• Avison Young
• AXI IMMO
• BNP Paribas Real Estate
• CBRE
• Colliers
• Cushman & Wakefield
• EHL
• JLL
• Knight Frank
• Savills

How many sources does each city need?

• At least three independent brokers. A city with fewer stays off the index until a third broker confirms a figure.
• Each brokerage counts once. A second report from the same broker, or a figure that repeats another source's number, does not add to the count.
• A figure can be at most one quarter older than the edition. Anything older is not counted.

Brokers per city in the Q2 2026 edition:

• Munich: 7 brokers
• Warsaw: 5 brokers
• Paris: 4 brokers
• Madrid: 4 brokers
• Vienna: 4 brokers
• Bucharest: 4 brokers
• London: 4 brokers
• Budapest: 3 brokers
• Milan: 3 brokers

Checked for this edition but held back for now:

• Bratislava: 2 independent sources so far
• Prague: 1 independent source so far
• Amsterdam: 2 independent sources so far

Before the Q2 2026 edition went live, a separate fact-check opened each of its 38 broker figures at the source again. All 38 matched.

How is the headline figure chosen?

• The headline figure is the median: line up every broker's figure for the city from lowest to highest and take the middle one. With an even number of brokers, it sits halfway between the two middle figures.
• Where a broker publishes a range, the middle of that range is used for the median. For example, Cushman & Wakefield quotes Warsaw at €24 to €29, which counts as €26.50.
• The range shown next to each city runs from the lowest to the highest figure any broker quoted, including the ends of published ranges.
• A broker figure more than 10% away from the median is flagged in our research notes, but it still counts. The range shows how far brokers disagree.

Example: Munich has 7 broker figures. Lined up from lowest to highest they read 57, 58, 59.5, 60, 62, 62, 62 (euros per m² per month). The middle one, €60, is the headline figure.

Which units and currencies?

Every city is first shown as published, in the unit its market uses:

• Euros per m² per year: Paris, Milan
• Euros per m² per month: Munich, Madrid, Budapest, Warsaw, Vienna, Bucharest
• Pounds per sq ft per year: London

In London, brokers quote pounds per sq ft without printing the period. Per year is the UK market convention, and the index follows it.

The switcher above the index table converts every figure into EUR, GBP, USD, AED or PLN, per m² or per sq ft, per month or per year. Converted figures are marked ≈ and are indicative. Show as published brings back the brokers' own figures.

• Currencies use the European Central Bank's reference rates, currently those of 25 Sep 2026.
• The UAE dirham is converted through its fixed peg to the US dollar: 3.6725 dirhams to the dollar.
• Area uses 1 sq ft = 0.092903 m².

How often is it updated?

• Every quarter.
• Next update: Q3 2026 edition, January 2027.
• Shopping centre and industrial rents are due to join in the Q3 2026 edition.

What is the index not?

• Not a RealTimes estimate: every figure is a broker's own published number.
• Not an average rent: it tracks the prime end of each market only.
• Not a download: there is no file to export. The data lives on the index page, with every source linked.