Vitosha Boulevard Remains Among the Cheapest Shopping Streets in the Balkans

Vitosha Boulevard is on 47th place for the most expensive commercial street in the world for this year. It climbs to its highest position for the past five years.

The annual Main Streets Across The World report, celebrating its 30th anniversary, tracks 446 of the top retail streets around the globe and ranks the most expensive in 65 countries by prime rental value utilizing Cushman & Wakefield's proprietary data. 

For this year Vitosha climbs two places up with an average monthly rental on commercial areas of EUR 50 per square meter.

''In Sofia, Vitosha Boulevard enjoys a constant interest in opening new shops and restaurants in recent years, and this is also the basis for the rent growth we are seeing, especially when the  locations are with better visibility and they are demanded by traders", said Ivan Gramatikov, who is the Sales Manager at Cushman & Wakefield.

Russell Street, in the city's central Causeway Bay district, has replaced New York's Upper 5th Avenue as the world's most expensive retail street by rental value, according to property consultants Cushman & Wakefield.

,671 per sq. ft. is the annual rent on Russell Street, Hong Kong 

It's the first time in five years that the city has earned the dubious honor, with average annual rents of ,671 per square foot. That's despite a small decline of in average rents, according to the company's annual Main Streets Across the World report, released on Wednesday morning.

It marks the sixth time Causeway Bay has been named the world's most expensive retail location.

That's on top of world records for the world's most expensive parking space and the most expensive residential property in the world.

What's driving the records? Rich Chinese...