Integrated planning needed for Dutch market

Dutch municipal authorities need to formulate long-term urban planning strategies to tackle the high level of office vacancies in the Netherlands, according to Pieter Hendrikse, CEO of CBRE Global Investors EMEA.

'When you talk about Dutch investment opportunities, there’s a real split between good and less good buildings and between the Randstad (western agglomeration ed.) and the rest of the country. I’m not so sure whether the gap will narrow or widen, that will depend on the need for office space. But one thing is clear, municipalities have allowed offices to be built in all different places around their cities and now some of those buildings are empty. They have underestimated their own responsibility.'

Hendrikse claims many Dutch municipalities have been driven by short-term goals to generate proceeds from new land issuance. The municipality of Utrecht in the centre of the Netherlands is a case in point. The authorities facilitated the development of Papendorp, a new business park to the southwest of the city, but failed to provide the promised infrastructure to connect the area with the city centre. As a result, CapGemini, one of the tenants of a relatively new office building owned by CBRE Global Investors at Papendorp, is moving to a new office at a new business park to the west of the city.

The municipality has failed to actively manage Papendorp, Hendrikse argues. 'Papendorp is not fully developed and now they are allowing a tenant to leave for a new location. That’s difficult to understand. The municipality has a responsibility to keep tenants in a building. By not showing that commitment, they are undermining their own business park. That’s a shame.'

Papendorp is by no means the only example. In Amsterdam, a number of different business districts compete with each other, with varying results and high vacancy levels at the least successful locations. ‘The government needs to develop a vision and a plan for what should be done with zoning and planning in the Netherlands. They need to come up with an integrated approach for infrastructure and buildings. We need a long-term vision instead of a short-term one.’

The full interview with Pieter Hendrikse appears in the June issue of PropertyEU Magazine. Click on the link below to subscribe