SIDEWAYS MOVEMENT ON THE OFFICE LEASING MARKET
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For Germany's most important office strongholds Berlin, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig and Munich, take-up of 1.3m sqm was recorded at mid-year. Overall, the market is moving sideways. In a market environment that remains challenging, Berlin and Munich once again take the lead.
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The Berlin office market has made an impressive comeback. With take-up of 373,000 sqm and a 51% increase in a direct year-on-year comparison, the German capital has returned to the top of the leading office markets. The current half-year result, which is almost 10% above the long-term average, was driven in particular by the increased number of large-scale lettings. In Munich, four major contracts also made a decisive contribution to the significant rise in take-up. At 354,000 sqm, the previous year's result was exceeded by 38%. The market is therefore back in line with its long-term average. With a considerable gap, the office markets of Hamburg and Frankfurt follow with take-up of 177,000 sqm and 173,000 sqm, respectively. Letting activity in both markets has been quite lively in the important medium-sized space segment, but so far this year they still lack the large-scale contracts that make the difference in the current market environment. The Düsseldorf market is on track, confirming its previous year's result with 99,000 sqm and, for the first time since 2023, registering a contract above the 10,000-sqm mark. The Cologne market lacks broad-based momentum, meaning that take-up in the first half of the year amounted to only 76,000 sqm. The interim results in Leipzig (33,000 sqm) and Essen (18,000 sqm) were also disappointing.