Can Average Rental Rates Predict A Country’s Olympics Performance?

The gates to the Olympic Village in London swung shut nearly two weeks ago, but the mounds of data continue to trickle in. Indeed, when Erin Patterson, a senior research analyst at Jones Lang LaSalle, began analyzing real estate metrics across the top markets in 12 countries, she soon found a positive correlation between average commercial rental rates and Olympic medals. “If you have a country that has an office market performing strongly, it’s indicating that these are markets where businesses want to grow and expand,” said Ms. Patterson. “That funnels capital into the marketing place, whcih then can be allocated in a lot of ways, including by making its way to Olympic athletes.” After the jump, a sampling of 12 countries, average cost per square foot in their largest cities, and the number of medals each of them won during the two-week event.