Belgium as a whole suffers from the ‘small country syndrome’ but Brussels clearly punches above its weight, according to David Bouch, managing director of Brussels-based Eurocapital Property Investors.
Belgium as a whole suffers from the ‘small country syndrome’ but Brussels clearly punches above its weight, according to David Bouch, managing director of Brussels-based Eurocapital Property Investors.
Speaking at the PropertyEU Benelux Investment Briefing at Realty in Brussels recently, Bouch said investment prospects for the Brussels office market are also looking up. His company focuses primarily on Brussels which differs significantly from most other markets in terms of its economic drivers, he added.
‘Demand is driven from many different sectors. It is very much like Washington DC, with companies from all over the world with a base in town.’
A number of developments point to improving prospects, he added, citing ongoing trade negotiations between the US and the European Union which are set to continue for the next two to three years. ‘It will become increasingly important for companies that are trading between the two blocs to have a representation In Brussels,’ he predicted.
While take-up came to just 400,000m2 in 2012, in some years it has reached 700,000 m2, he added. ‘That’s a lot for a city of 1 million people. Compared to cities like Dublin and Lyon, which have a similar population to Brussels, office take-up there is half of what we see in Brussels.’ Another positive factor is that the development pipeline is drying up. Vacancy rates in central Brussels are already quite low at 6% and are now set to fall further, he added. ‘I don’t see that changing soon with financing remaining so tight.’
The full story appears in the July-August edition of PropertyEU.
