The Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) sector has caught up with the professional services sector as the two most active drivers of take-up in the European office market, according to a new research report issued by Savills.
Both sectors accounted for 21% of all office take-up in the cities that Savills tracks, followed by the banking, finance and insurance sector (16%) in third place. Over the same period of time in 2018 and 2019, the ICT sector accounted for 17% and 16% of all office take-up, respectively.
Dublin remains the city with the highest take up by ICT in Europe, with 65% of take-up so far this year from the sector, up from 50% last year. Amsterdam comes second, with 48%, up from 19% during 2019, boosted by megadeals from Uber and Adyen during the first half of 2020.
Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, London City, Madrid, Munich and Prague all observed increases in the proportion of space taken by the ICT sector during 2020, noted Jeremy Bates, EMEA head of occupational markets at Savills. ‘The industry continues to show relative resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic and we anticipate to see some more big ticket leases from this sector over the next few months,’ he said.
Mike Barnes, associate European Research, Savills, added: ‘Despite European office take up falling 32% year-on-year during the first half of 2020, this figure only tells one part of the story namely that certain sectors, such as ICT and professional services, continue to drive office demand, whether because they are following long-term strategies or as a direct result of increasing space requirements as a consequence of Covid-19.’
