German office take-up rises 19% in H1: Colliers

Office take-up in the six biggest markets in Germany was up almost 19% at around 1.42 million m² in the first six months of 2011 compared with the year-earlier period, new figures from Colliers International show.

Second-quarter take-up in the six cities analysed by Colliers - Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, and Stuttgart - amounted to about 814,000 m². The highest take-up was recorded in Munich, with H1 leasing volumes up over 50% at 387,000 m² compared with the year-earlier period.

Berlin, which topped its 2010 results by nearly 26%, came in second, with 289,800 m² of newly leased office space, followed by Frankfurt with 243,000 m², virtually unchanged from the previous year, and Hamburg, with approximately 220,000 m2, an increase of slightly less than 19%.

The biggest percentage jump was booked in Stuttgart, the smallest of the six major office markets, where this year’s take-up figure of about 128,000 m² was nearly double the figure for the same period of last year. The increase is attributable to several signings for large spaces of over 5,000 m². Düsseldorf was the only market to see a decline in take-up year on year (-30%), a development that reflects the large Vodafone lease signed last year.

All six office markets posted declining vacancies in Q2 compared with the preceding quarter, except Düsseldorf, where nearly 900,000 m² of office space stood vacant at the end of June, an increase of about 23,000 m² over the figure at end-March. By contrast, the year-on-year vacancy rate rose slightly in three markets (Düsseldorf, Hamburg, and Munich) and fell in the other three (Berlin, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart). Frankfurt continues to have the largest amount of vacant office space, but the figure at the end of the first half of this year dipped back below 2 million m² of office space for the first time in four quarters, making for a vacancy rate of 17%.

Prime rents continued their upward trend, led by Frankfurt where the prime rent at the end of the second quarter was EUR 37.50/m2, an increase of EUR 2.50/m² from a year ago. The largest increases by comparison to both the previous year and the last quarter were noted in Berlin, with prime rents of EUR 22.00/m2, and Stuttgart, where the figure rose to EUR 18.50/m². Düsseldorf was the only market to see a decrease from last year, with the prime rent declining from EUR 25.00 to EUR 23.00/m².

Colliers International is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation and the third-largest commercial real estate services company in the world with 12,500 professionals operating out of more than 500 offices in 61 countries.