Office premises have a dominant role as investment vehicles and are therefore most important for the commercial property market as a whole. Investment in new commercial properties partly depends on developments in rental rates and the number of vacant premises. Developments in rental rates for office premises in Norwegian cities over the past twenty years appear to have been fairly uniform, with very high rates at the end of the 1980s, followed by a marked negative correction towards the mid-1990s. Rental rates then rose considerably up to the end of the century, followed by another downward correction. Stavanger seems to have experienced a relatively even rise in real terms throughout the period. Rental rates in Trondheim and Bergen seem to have had  BIS Review 41/2006  1  a less pronounced peak at the end of the century than Oslo, while rental rates in Tromsø have been relatively stable since 1992. Last year rental prices for office premises began to pick up in several Norwegian cities. There is considerable variation within the various quality and location segments. The prestigious segment in central business areas shows the highest rise in prices, while rental prices in some less attractive areas have remained virtually unchanged. During the cyclical peak between 1997 and 2001, only 4 per cent of the office premises in Oslo were vacant. More moderate economic growth in 2002 and 2003 contributed to a fairly sharp rise in the vacancy rate. Over the past two years, the rate has fallen again.
It is possible that the e-krona could play a role for Sweden's crisis preparedness. But in any case, the Riksbank needs to clarify its role as provider of money in appropriate forms in a crisis situation. In the same way as the Riksbank is ‘lender of last resort’ for the banking system, we have a responsibility to enable payments in a crisis, to be a ‘money provider of last resort’. Personal reflections Two years of intensive work on the e-krona have now passed and I will be leaving the chairmanship of the steering group as the project enters the next phase. It has been two incredibly educational years, but I think it is still too early for me to decide whether or not I shall support an e-krona for the general public in the future. As has hopefully been clear from my earlier reasoning, this depends on whether it emerges that there are better alternatives to guarantee both the security and efficiency of the payment market. And to answer this, the analysis needs to continue. At the Riksbank, we will work in two parallel tracks: partly, we will develop the pilot version of a simpler form of the e-krona and learn the lessons that may be needed if it turns out that an e-krona is to be issued. And partly we will deepen our analysis of the consequences for Sweden if the payment market should become entirely privatised.