During the first half of this year, the purchase price of Kyiv office real estate increased by 18.4% yoy, $2,269 per square meter – more than double the national average of 8.4%. Office rents increased by 13.3% in Kyiv, to $18.7 per square meter. Nationally, office rents declined by almost 1%, Volodomyr Shalaev, director general of the Uvecon group, tells Interfax-Ukraine. In Lviv, rents increased at the same pace as Kyiv, but office selling prices soared by 29%, to $1,210 per square meter.