Suburban office rentals surge as CBD exodus intensifies

📅 Published: August 26, 2025

📰 Source: theindependent

Curated by AllZimNews.com

📰 Source: theindependent
Curated by AllZimNews. com

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RENTAL rates in Harare’s suburban office space have surged by 20% over the past year, as companies intensify a decade long exodus out of the city’s central business district (CBD), a leading real estate firm said this week.

The drift out has been triggered by shifting business landscapes in Zimbabwe’s cities, where thousands of informal traders dominate street pavements.

According to real estate firm Knight Frank, this structural shift is also driven by the search for less congested environments out of CBDs. “Harare’s office market is undergoing a structural transformation as occupiers continue to migrate from the CBD to suburban nodes such as Newlands, Eastlea, Mt Pleasant, Milton Park, and Belvedere,” Knight Frank said in a report titled “Africa Offices Market Dashboard”, which looked at trends during the first half of 2025. “This decentralisation trend has driven year on year rental growth of approximately 20% in suburban locations, with average rates now ranging between US$8 to US$10 per square metre per month, compared to US$5 to US$7 per square metre the CBD. “The shift is driven by the demand for a less congested, more accessible environment and the repurposing of residential properties into small sized office spaces, which is expanding suburban stock. ”
For property owners, the shift into suburban areas has seen office yields surpassing those in the CBD. 🔗

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