NO MAJOR DEALS YET
The start into the year on the Essen office market has been very modest. With a take-up of 11,000 sqm, only half of the previous year's volume was achieved and the ten-year average was also significantly undershot. However, this result, disappointing at first glance, must be analyzed in the context of the market mechanisms of smaller office markets. Their results are generally determined to a much greater extent by a small number of large deals than in the major A-locations. Therefore, the main reason for the weak result so far is also to be seen in the fact that, for the first time in the past ten years, it has not yet been possible to record any contracts in excess of 2,000 sqm in the first quarter. The analysis at contracts up to 2,000 sqm, shows that the current take-up is even slightly above average and also marks 6% above the long-term average. Against this background, the snapshot of the first three months does not yet allow any conclusions to be drawn for the year as a whole. Furthermore in 2015 and 2016, very little space was taken up in the first quarter and yet a good to very good annual results were achieved.