How the RealTimes Prime Rental Index works

What does prime rent mean here?

• The prime rent is the 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.
• Most brokers simply call it a prime rent. A few call it a prime headline rent, the rent written in the lease before incentives such as rent-free months. We record each broker's own term next to its figure.
• RT/PRIME 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; no source isolates a CBD figure)
• Warsaw: City Centre / CBD (central zones, prime)
• Milan: CBD Duomo
• Bucharest: CBD (Central Business District)
• London: West End

A broker figure for a different area, for example a CBD figure where the city is measured citywide, is kept out of the median. Where a broker gives its prime rent without naming the district, we count it for the main business district and say so next to the figure.

Counted with the district not stated in the source:

• Munich, JLL
• Munich, Savills
• Munich, Cushman & Wakefield
• Munich, Knight Frank
• Bucharest, CBRE

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.

Brokerages counted in the Q2 2026 edition, by the name on the report:

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

Which brokers do we use?

• Global brokerage firms: the firms that publish office market research under one brand in many countries. This keeps the set of firms similar from city to city.
• The name on the report decides. A figure published under a global brand counts, including where a locally owned partner firm produced it under that brand.
• Where the report names a local partner next to the brand, we show that name too, so readers can see who produced the figure.
• A figure published under a local firm's own brand is not used in the index.

What we record for every figure

For every broker figure we record:

• the date the broker published it, and the period the figure describes;
• the broker's own term for the rent, the area it covers and its unit;
• whether incentives such as rent-free months are left out, as the broker states it, or that the broker does not say;
• any other point that affects the number, such as a news outlet that reproduced the broker's release, or a range where the broker gives no single figure.

The term, area and publication date sit next to each broker's name on the index. Where we could not confirm a detail, such as an exact publication date, we say so rather than guess.

In this edition:

• 39 of 41 figures carry a confirmed publication date;
• 5 figures are called headline rents by the broker, a term that means before incentives;
• for 36 figures the broker does not state how it treats incentives, and we record that rather than assume it;
• 11 figures are quoted through a news outlet that reproduced the broker's own release.

Comparing like with like

Brokers do not all measure prime rent the same way. Some publish a headline rent, some an asking rent, a stated maximum or the highest rent ever signed. Averaging figures built on different measures produces noise, not data.

So before a figure joins a city's median, it must match the others on:

• the kind of rent: a prime or headline rent, not an asking rent, a maximum or a record;
• the area: the city's main business district, or the whole city where that is how the city is measured;
• the unit and period.

A figure that does not match stays in the source list next to the city, marked with the reason, and is kept out of the median and range. Where a broker's wording leaves the measure unclear, we keep the figure out and review it. A city with fewer than three comparable figures is held back until more arrive.

Kept out of the median in the Q2 2026 edition:

• Madrid, Savills: record-high figure, not a stated prime rent
• Warsaw, Knight Frank: average rent, not a prime rent
• Warsaw, AXI IMMO: asking rent, not blended; not published under a global brokerage brand
• Bucharest, Colliers: stated maximum, not blended

How recent must a figure be?

• In Q3 2026, we use Q2 2026 figures first and accept Q1 2026 figures as a fallback.
• Anything older counts only with a written reason, shown next to the figure.
• A fallback figure is marked with its quarter next to the broker's name.
• The window moves on the first day of each quarter, and the index is rebuilt to follow it.

How many sources does each city need?

• At least three separate brokerages whose figures measure the same thing. A city with fewer stays off the index until a third comparable figure arrives.
• 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 must fall inside the recency window above.

Brokers per city in the Q2 2026 edition:

• Munich: 6 brokers
• Paris: 4 brokers
• Warsaw: 4 brokers
• London: 4 brokers
• Madrid: 3 brokers
• Milan: 3 brokers
• Bucharest: 3 brokers

Checked for this edition but held back for now:

• Budapest: 2 comparable figures so far. Left out:
  • Cushman & Wakefield: asking rent, not blended; CBD figure, this city is measured citywide
  • Avison Young: CBD figure, this city is measured citywide
• Vienna: 2 comparable figures so far. Left out:
  • Cushman & Wakefield (CBS Austria): stated maximum, not blended; best locations figure, this city is measured citywide
  • EHL: not published under a global brokerage brand
  • OTTO Immobilien: not published under a global brokerage brand
• Bratislava: 2 of the 3 brokerages needed so far
• Prague: 1 of the 3 brokerages needed so far
• Amsterdam: 2 of the 3 brokerages needed so far

For the sourcing rules above, every source was opened again: 40 of 41 loaded for our checker. Where a broker's site blocks automated reading, the figure rests on the earlier first-hand read, or is dropped when it was never read first hand.

How is the index figure chosen?

• The index figure is the median: line up every comparable broker 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 6 comparable broker figures. Lined up from lowest to highest they read 57, 58, 59.5, 60, 62, 62 (euros per m² per month). The two middle ones, €59.50 and €60, average to €59.75, the index 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, Warsaw, 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 29 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, November 2026. Then the Q4 2026 edition, January 2027.
• Retail 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.

Which sources are behind each city?

Every broker figure we read for this edition, from our source register: