Take-up of office, industrial and retail space across the Netherlands halved in the first six months of 2009 compared to the same period last year, according to research by PropertyNL.

Take-up of office, industrial and retail space across the Netherlands halved in the first six months of 2009 compared to the same period last year, according to research by PropertyNL.

PropertyEU's Dutch language sister publication reports that 53% less office space was taken up in the first six months of 2009. This is the lowest take-up registered in the last 20 years.

The decline was slightly worse in the industrial sector (55%), while retail take-up fell by an estimated 45%.

PropertyNL also said that investment volumes in the Dutch market were down by about 50% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2008 at EUR 1.8 bn .