London’s West End’s relatively lower occupational costs also enhances its attractiveness to retailers. Examining prime total occupational costs on a per sq ft basis across the Global Cities, London’s Bond Street ranks fourth with New York’s Fifth Avenue being the most expensive (Table 4).

^{Source: Savills Research}

^{Note: Additional occupational costs includes typical service charge, Government/property tax, typical agent fee paid by retailer and any other additional costs paid by the retailer when acquiring a new store. The rent reflects cost across the entire property and not just Zone A rents in the case of London. Currency exchange based on average for December 2015.}

While cost of occupation is an important consideration it is really profitability that determines a locations strength. The ability to assess profitability is difficult as there is very little transparency surrounding sales at store level. One potential gauge of profitability however, is to examine retail sales at a city level relative to indicative occupational costs, as detailed in Figure 6.

Based on this, London appears to be the most ‘profitable’ based on 2015 retail spend and total occupational costs with £57.4m (US$87.8m) of sales per sq ft of total occupational costs.

^{Source: Savills Research; Oxford Economics}