Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The global recession is taking its toll on even the priciest shopping streets, where rents have plunged the most in at least 24 years, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the largest closely held real estate broker.

Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue ranked as the world’s most expensive retail address for the eighth straight year, even as annual rents dropped 8.1 percent in the 12 months through June, to $1,700 a square foot, the New York-based company said today in a report. Rents in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay declined 15 percent to $1,525. On the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris, they were little changed at $1,009.

“The last 12 months have been one of the most difficult periods ever for the retail sector,” John Strachan, global head of retail at Cushman & Wakefield, said in an e-mailed statement. “The impact has been much more significant as the full impact of the downturn has been realized.”

Shop rents are falling worldwide as household and consumer spending contract and unemployment rates rise, prompting retailers to curb expansion plans. Financial companies have fired 286,400 workers in the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The average rent in the 274 shopping streets monitored across 60 countries by Cushman & Wakefield fell 23 percent to $213 a square foot from $276 a square foot a year earlier.

Rents declined in 147 locations, the most since Cushman & Wakefield first published its survey in 1986. They were little changed on 76 streets and rose on 51.

Asia-Pacific Slides

The biggest regional decrease was in the Asia-Pacific, with rents down 15.1 percent. In central and eastern Europe, they slid 14.7 percent. They dropped 12 percent in the U.S. and Canada and 5.8 percent in Europe as a whole.

“A significant resumption of rental growth in the short term is unlikely, at least until the wider global economy and labor market show firmer signs of recovery,” Anthea To, a Cushman & Wakefield retail analyst, said in the statement.

Rents in less profitable areas may continue to fall as retailers focus on the places that are most in demand, she said.

Milan’s Via Montenapoleone, where annual rents rose 1.5 percent, ranked as the fourth-priciest street in the survey, at $887 a square foot. It was followed by Tokyo at $776 and London’s New Bond Street at $768. The most expensive streets in Zurich, Dublin, Munich and Sydney rounded out the global top 10.

Munich’s Kaufingerstrasse jumped to ninth place from 12th after annual rents rose 7.1 percent to $470 a square foot, the biggest increase of any street in the top 10 cities.

German Affluence

“Munich’s affluent consumers and the region’s continuing prosperity make its prime pitches a No. 1 target for international brands seeking to expand into the German market,” Inga Schwarz, Cushman & Wakefield’s head of research in Germany, said in the statement.

Rents on Dublin’s Grafton Street tumbled 23 percent, the most of any of the 10 costliest addresses.

They surged as much as 111 percent in Sao Paolo. Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam recorded the biggest jump in the Asia- Pacific region, at 50 percent.

Mumbai had the steepest decline worldwide, at 64 percent, the broker said.

Other shopping districts in the survey included New York’s Madison Avenue, Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Moscow’s Tverskaya, Shanghai’s East Nanjing Road and Vienna’s Kaertnerstrasse.

Cushman & Wakefield’s list of the 10 most expensive addresses is based on a ranking of countries by their priciest street. A country can’t have more than one street in the top 10.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Woodifield in Edinburgh at pwoodifield@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 22, 2009 09:36 EDT