Office can be defined as a place where mass of data is accumulated in a systematic manner and is analyzed for management actions and channels of communication within and outside of an organization. Hence, office market is an important area in the real estate sector particularly in developed cities where office market has the similar importance as the housing market. These cities have identified office as what accelerates the wheels of businesses. Therefore, there are heavy investments and

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... s in the office market. In developing cities like Colombo, office market seems to be less recognized compared to the other real estate markets, for instance, "housing market". Therefore, "an assessment on the recognition of the office market in Colombo" is an important area for real estate research. It is also possible to compare Colombo's situation with established office markets like New York, Hong Kong, and Berlin etc. However, this study aims to analyze the general pattern of the private sector office market in Colombo and to identify the determinants of the demand for office buildings. Data was obtained through a questionnaire survey using 30 private offices having selected through systematic random sampling technique within the Colombo Municipal Council limits. Elementary statistics as percentage and probability concepts and weighted score techniques were used for analysis. The study found that nearly 10% of real estate in the study area represents office properties. Eventhough the office market represents significant amount of real estate, there is no separate database, which maintains specifically for office property information. The Colombo Municipal Council has catergorized office properties as commercial buildings. According to the analysis 78% of offices are maintained as pure office and only 22% of offices are maintained as mixed office within the study area. As far as the ownership is concerened, the largest market segment is for the "leasehold office space in the city centre" according to the respondents' view.