Ruairi Moriarty

There is a lot of new commercial space around the edges of the old downtown commercial and administrative districts of Lideta and Arada.  Buildings are characteristically mixed use, with it rare to find office only developments, as opposed to one or several floors of retail with office floors above.

There are other distinct peculiarities to the generally-well constructed and finished speculative space which has alleviated the previously chronic shortages of good quality office space. These include frequently single stair multi-storey buildings, which make them unsuitable for most western corporate occupiers, whose HSE requirements dictate a second stair. There is similarly little evidence of fire alarms, escape route signage or hand held extinguishers within the majority of buildings. All do however have fire hydrants at each floor, but there remains a question over whether sufficient water pressure exists to make these of use. There is virtually no provision of AC within office space, as the mild high climate does not require it and suspended acoustic ceilings are a rarity.

Office rents are perhaps highest in the districts of Bole, Yeka and Kirkos, although Addis remains a comparatively opaque market with landlords applying markedly different rents with little seeming consistency to location or quality. A landlord of a Grade B building, with a single stair, parking provision at 1 space per 150 sq m leased, with secondary retail use on the ground floor, is seeking Birr 250 /sq m /pm (USD 14.90 /sq m /pm) close to La Gare (where no trains run these days). A more standard office rental in these highly valued mixed use districts is between Birr 150 to 200 sq m /pm (USD 9.00 to 12.00 /sq m /pm).