LOCAL EXPERTISE – ACROSS GERMANY
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS CONTACT
Ms Britt Finke
Phone: +49 (0)40 / 350 80 2 - 993
Fax: +49 (0)40 / 350 80 2 - 36
Mobile: +49 (0)162 / 232 30 37
Mail: [email protected]
OFFICE MARKET GERMANY Q1/2017
BEST START FOR MANY YEARS
02 April 2017, Hamburg. Year on year take-up of office space in Germany’s top 7 property
markets rose by some 16% in the 1st quarter of 2017. A total of 923,600 m² of office space in
Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich was let or handed to an
owner-occupier. This emerged from figures compiled by German Property Partners (GPP). The
proportion of owner-occupier transactions almost doubled, to 15%. “Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf
and Munich kicked off the new year with better results than any during the past five to ten years,”
says GPP spokesman Björn Holzwarth commenting on office take-up in the top 7 locations.
TAKE-UP OF SPACE: HAMBURG IS A HOT SPOT
With an increase of 60%, Hamburg posted by far the biggest growth in take-up of office space in
any of the top 7 cities. The office space market saw similar good growth in Munich (+25%),
Stuttgart (+22%) and Düsseldorf (+21%), whereas there was practically no change in Berlin (+1%).
German Property Partners recorded declining figures only in Frankfurt (-2%) and Cologne (-20%).
Hamburg’s office take-up figure of 160,000 m² was the best year-opening result seen for the past
ten years. This was attributable to five agreements for more than 5,000 m² of space each,
compared with only two such contracts in the same period a year before. The interim lease for
19,700 m² of office space at Überseering 35 in City North was the biggest agreement signed in the
1st quarter.
Munich too, presented the best 1st-quarter result in recent years with a total of 237,000 m². In this
case, three rental agreements for premises measuring more than 10,000 m² played a crucial role.
The Deutsche Pfandbriefbank took 14,000 m² of space at Parkring 28-32 in Garching, Publicis
Pixelpark chose 13,000 m² at Rosenheimer Strasse 143 a-d and the Bavarian State Capital Munich
rented 12,000 m² at Denisstrasse 2.
Top known agreements for 10,000 m² or more | top 7 locations | Q1, 2017
City
STU
Project/property
Fasanenweg, Leinfelden-Echterdingen
BER
Puschkinallee 52, Treptow
DUS
HAM
MUC
MUC
DUS
MUC
Hansaallee 1-3
Überseering 35
Parkring 28-32, Garching
Rosenheimer Strasse 143 a-d
Schwannstraße 10
Denisstrasse 2
Tenant/owner-occupier
Daimler AG (owner-occupier)
Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (Federal
real estate) (owner-occupier)
HSBC Transaction Services
University of Hamburg
Deutsche Pfandbriefbank
Publicis Pixelpark
Bankhaus Lampe
Bavarian state capital Munich
Rented space (m²)
about 50,000
about 47,000
about 22,000
about 19,700
about 14,000
about 13,000
about 13,000
about 12,000
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The owner-occupier agreement signed by Daimler for 50,000 m² (Fasanenweg, LeinfeldenEchterdingen) lifted office take-up in Stuttgart to a total of 74,500 m². Apart from this contract,
however, the biggest so far in any of the top 7 cities, business was quiet in Stuttgart with a letting
total of 24,500 m².
Take-up of space in Düsseldorf totalled 102,800 m², the city’s best 1st-quarter result in five years
and thus well above the five-year average of 79,800 m². The rental agreement signed by HSBC
Transaction Services for 22,000 m² in a new build at Hansaallee 1-3 was a key contribution to the
total.
Although there was only minimal growth in the take-up of office space, the year’s opening result of
172,000 m² was the best Berlin has seen in the past ten years. A huge 27% of this total (47,000
m²) was attributable to the sale of the old Vattenfall headquarters at Puschkinallee 52 which the
Federal real estate corporation, Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (BIMA), purchased for its
own use.
Unlike the situation in previous years, no agreements for over 10,000 m² were signed in Frankfurt
in the 1st quarter. Despite that, take-up of office space in this metropolis on the Main slipped only a
little, to 125,300 m². Lettings were especially brisk in the 2,000 to 5,000 m² sector, where nine
agreements totalled about 30,000 m², and in the 5,000 to 10,000 m² category, where twice as
many transactions were recorded year on year, resulting in a 75% increase in take-up.
The steepest drop in the take-up of office space was reported in Cologne, falling from a particularly
high base in the 1st quarter of 2016 to 52,000 m² this year. The biggest agreement to date was a
let to Lufthansa, which took 6,500 m² of space on Linnicher Strasse while waiting to move into
4,600 m² in ONE COLOGNE, now being refurbished at Venloer Strasse 151-153.
RENTS: PERSISTENTLY TRENDING UP
The average rent for office space rose in all top 7 locations, with the steepest increases in Berlin
(+7%) and Düsseldorf (+6%). Both Stuttgart and Cologne reported growth rates of 5%, Frankfurt,
Munich and Hamburg posted +3% each. Traditionally, the highest average monthly rents have
been charged in Frankfurt (€18.00/m²/month) and Munich (€16.50/m²/month). However, Berlin’s
figure has climbed to €16.20/m²/month and is thus almost level with Munich’s rate.
The trends for the premium rent were far less uniform. In Frankfurt the top rates fell by 1% due to
the low volume of agreements for expensive space in top properties, although the new figure of
€38.00/m²/month is still higher than in the other six cities. These posted rises of between +1%
(Cologne) and +14% (Munich, Berlin). Apart from Frankfurt, only one other city has top rents higher
than €30/m²/month and that is Munich with a level of €34.40/m²/month. In the other five locations
the premium rents varied between €21.50/m²/month (Cologne) and €28/m²/month (Berlin).
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VACANT SPACE: DRAMATIC SHRINKAGE
The amount of office space available at short notice in the top 7 cities shrank by 15% in the 1st
quarter, falling to 4.6m m². The reserve of available space was 5.1% relative to a total pool of office
space of 90.59m m².
Apart from Düsseldorf, where the amount of available office space increased by 3%, all other
locations registered shrinking stocks of vacant space, dramatically so in most cases. Munich, Berlin
and Cologne posted a drop in vacant space of more than 20%, in Frankfurt and Stuttgart more than
10% less space stood empty.
The lowest vacancy rates among the top 7 cities were found in Stuttgart (3.0%), Berlin (3.2%) and
Munich (3.5%), the highest in Düsseldorf (9.7%) and Frankfurt (10.3%). For all top 7 locations the
volume of completions in 2017 and 2018 is set to total 2.18m m² of office space. Construction
activity is centred in Berlin (464,000 m²) and Hamburg (439,000 m²). “In Stuttgart’s city district there
are only two new builds under construction for a total of 11,000 m²”, says Holzwarth giving an
example of the situation elsewhere.
OUTLOOK
“According to the ifo Institute the business mood is steadily improving. But, thanks to an unknown
number of refugees who will try to join the workforce in coming months and job cuts announced by
some big German companies, no-one can be really sure about how the labour market might
change in 2017. So far demand for office space remains high - especially modern new-build
premises - and we know that various clients are looking for large amounts of space. We therefore
estimate a total take-up of office space of 3.55 million square metres in 2017,” forecasts
Holzwarth. “In view of the mismatch between supply and demand in the new build sector the
situation could easily change. The likely result is a further rise in rents, both average and premium.”
6,627 signs excluding main headlines + tables
Top 7 locations | Q1, 2017
Take-up of space
in m²
Change
against prior yr in %
Premium rent
in €/m²/month
Average rent
in €/m²/month
Stock of office space
in millions m²
Vacancies
in m²
Vacancy rate
in %
HAM
BER
DUS
CGN
FFM
STU
MUC
Top 7
160,000
172,000
102,800
52,000
125,300
74,500
237,000
923,600
+60
+1
+21
-20
-2
+22
+25
+16
26.50
28.00
26.50
21.50
38.00
23.00
34.40
-
15.00
16.20
14.20
13.00
18.00
13.90
16.50
-
13.55
19.17
7.62
7.80
11.67
7.80
22.99
90.59
671,000
620,000
740,000
350,000
1,203,800
231,000
798,000
4,613,800
5.0
3.2
9.7
4.5
10.3
3.0
3.5
5.1
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LOCAL EXPERTISE – ACROSS GERMANY
Completions
2017 + 2018 in m²
439,000
464,000
220,000
200,000
261,000
290,100
305,000
2,179,100
Source: German Property Partners
Take-up of office space | Q1, 2017
ABOUT GERMAN PROPERTY PARTNERS
German Property Partners is a nationwide network of property service providers which are leaders
in their local markets. The network’s greatest strengths are in-depth knowledge of local markets,
the long service history of the partner companies’ real estate consultants and the strong personal
commitment of the owners and directors. The network is represented by offices in Hamburg, Berlin,
Düsseldorf, Cologne | Bonn, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich. It offers services in matters of
property investment and commercial lets, in the property management, research and valuation
business, plus banking, financial and administrative services. Currently more than 380 property
experts act for German Property Partners. Nationwide, the network brokered lets in 2016 involving
452,000 m² of commercial property and managed transactions totaling €1.6bn.
[www.germanpropertypartners.de]
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