Sizing the West African office market — what occupiers should expect in 2026

Across Accra, Lagos and Abidjan the post-2022 correction has largely played out. Headline rents on Grade-A space are flat in dollar terms, while operating costs — power resilience, security, statutory levies — continue to grind upward. The net effect is that total occupancy cost is rising even where face rents are not, and most occupiers we advise are now budgeting on an all-in basis rather than headline.

Supply tells the more interesting story. ESG-aligned stock — meaning buildings that combine credible energy efficiency, water management and indoor air quality with documented governance — remains scarce. We track fewer than a dozen assets across the sub-region that would clear an institutional ESG screen without significant retrofit capex.

For occupiers, this asymmetry creates real options. Tenants willing to commit five years or more to credible green buildings have negotiating leverage that did not exist eighteen months ago. Conversely, occupiers locked into older stock should be modelling retrofit pathways now — the day landlords are forced to ask whether to renovate or sell is approaching faster than most rent rolls assume.

Our portfolio strategy work in 2026 has shifted accordingly. Two questions now lead every brief: how exposed is the existing footprint to ESG-driven repricing, and where can a single relocation reset both cost and carbon? Those are not separate conversations any more.