BEIJING - The top-tier office rents in Beijing rose sharply last year but were still not high enough to rival those in New York, the global real estate services firm DTZ said Wednesday.

Monthly rents of the top level offices in Beijing reached 246.43 yuan ($39) per square meter in 2011, with those in downtown CBD district hitting 270 yuan. But that were about three-fifths of the occupancy cost of top offices in New York, said Wei Dong, a regional research bureau chief of the firm.

The assessment came after Cushman & Wakefield placed Beijing ahead of New York in the fifth place for the world's most expensive office rentals on the real estate company's recently published 2012 rankings.

Analysts said the discrepancies might stem from the different gauges chosen by the two firms to value occupancy costs. But both statistics show a sharp rise of office rents in Beijing in 2011.

Wei said the price hike was caused by a shortage of supply in the market as real estate developers hoarded many of the new office spaces in good locations.

According to DTZ, the office rents at the China World Trade Towers were the priciest last year, topping 1,500 yuan per square meter a month. But firms with a tight budgets can still rent an office in the nearby SOHO Shangdu complex for about 150 yuan.

Growth of office rents in Beijing are widely expected to slow in 2012, according to the estimates of several real estate firms.