The high wages that companies must pay in Myanmar to attract experienced workers undercuts some of the advantages typically associated with less developed countries.

That is being compounded by prices broadly inflated by a sharp rise in speculation. Myanmar is by some measures more expensive and less efficient than its much more developed neighbor, Thailand.

The average office rent in Sakura Tower, in the heart of Yangon’s business district, is about $4.65 per square foot. That is twice the average rent for office space in the central business district of Bangkok, said Surachet Kongcheep, senior manager of the Thai branch of Colliers International, a real estate company. But unlike companies in many other large Asian cities, those in Yangon must deal with regular power failures, unreliable Internet service and primitive telephone connections to other countries.

The main problem with the Yangon rental market is a shortage of supply. Colliers estimates that Yangon has a total of 667,000 square feet of office space. By comparison, a single building in Bangkok, the Empire Tower, has more than twice that amount.

There are obvious economic bright spots. The number of foreigners — business people and tourists — visiting the country rose 26 percent last year, according to the Asian Development Bank, a boon for hotels and others who cater to visitors. (That group is likely to grow if economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union are lifted, though some Western executives are already visiting to position themselves in anticipation of eased sanctions.) At one of Yangon’s most exclusive hotels, The Strand, the least expensive room this week was $430 a night.

And while the shortage of office space and the generally battered state of the infrastructure are short-term handicaps, they could be long-term opportunities for investors.

In many ways, Myanmar is a country waiting to be built. Seventy-five percent of the country’s 55 million people do not have access to electricity, according to the Asian Development Bank.