News

Berlin offices

News

Estates Gazette

04 July 2001

Berlin is now counted among the top German cities in terms of office demand.

The first part of DaimlerChrysler’s Potsdamer Platz scheme in Berlin, one of the biggest building sites in Europe, has seen lettings as high as DM62 per m2 a month, the highest in the city. Half of the 500,000m2 is offices over 19 buildings. The scheme also has 30% retail and leisure, and a 20% residential element. Among occupiers is Debis, DaimlerChrysler’s services subsidiary.

Across the road, Sony’s project is also complete. Tenants include DeutscheBahn which is going to move in to the 27,000m2 tower and Sony Europe which has taken 20,000m2 at the scheme. Swiss developer ABB is on site with the first phase of Potsdamer Platz’s third element.

The move of the seat of government from Bonn is seeing development of the 400,000m2 Chancellery, opposite the Reichstag, thus providing offices for government departments.

The market will have to deal with 300,000m2 of new space in this year and the next. This may seem a lot of space, but agents are confident it will let. Heike Arlitt, associate director agency at DTZ, says that average annual take-up of between 400,000m2 and 420,000m2 per year since 1996 will soon soak it up.

“I think that in the top locations, prices will stay stable and demand for these locations will remain good,” she says.

Arlitt is not so sanguine about immediate prospects for secondary areas. According to figures from DTZ, three-quarters of all lettings are for less than DM30 per m2 a month.

“Locations such as city fringe and out-of-town will still be under pressure for the next six months. But now that the government has finally moved here, we have started to see companies coming from out of Berlin and even from abroad. That hasn’t happened before.” Although the government’s move is the driving force, part of this upturn is due to a new-found confidence throughout the German property market. In a recent report, Jones Lang LaSalle said that 740,000m2 of offices will come on the market this year in Germany’s five major cities – Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf. It predicts that this figure will jump to 1m m2 in 2001 and 1.1m m2 in 2002.

The clink of steins will be heard all over Berlin this summer. The gloomy feeling of property consultants last year that take-up in Berlin was never going to be able to play catch-up with centres such as Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich has been replaced with a new ebullience. Gone are the days – just 12 months ago – when Berlin’s vacancy rate stood at 10%. Berlin is now counted among the top German cities in terms of office demand. The first part of DaimlerChrysler’s Potsdamer Platz scheme in Berlin, one of the biggest building sites in Europe, has seen lettings as high as DM62 per m2 a month, the highest in the city. Half of the 500,000m2 is offices over 19 buildings. The scheme also has 30% retail and leisure, and a 20% residential element. Among occupiers is Debis, DaimlerChrysler’s services subsidiary. Across the road, Sony’s project is also complete. Tenants include DeutscheBahn which is going to move in to the 27,000m2 tower and Sony Europe which has taken 20,000m2 at the scheme. Swiss developer ABB is on site with the first phase of Potsdamer Platz’s third element. The move of the seat of government from Bonn is seeing development of the 400,000m2 Chancellery, opposite the Reichstag, thus providing offices for government departments. The market will have to deal with 300,000m2 of new space in this year and the next. This may seem a lot of space, but agents are confident it will let. Heike Arlitt, associate director agency at DTZ, says that average annual take-up of between 400,000m2 and 420,000m2 per year since 1996 will soon soak it up. “I think that in the top locations, prices will stay stable and demand for these locations will remain good,” she says. Arlitt is not so sanguine about immediate prospects for secondary areas. According to figures from DTZ, three-quarters of all lettings are for less than DM30 per m2 a month. “Locations such as city fringe and out-of-town will still be under pressure for the next six months. But now that the government has finally moved here, we have started to see companies coming from out of Berlin and even from abroad. That hasn’t happened before.” Although the government’s move is the driving force, part of this upturn is due to a new-found confidence throughout the German property market. In a recent report, Jones Lang LaSalle said that 740,000m2 of offices will come on the market this year in Germany’s five major cities – Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf. It predicts that this figure will jump to 1m m2 in 2001 and 1.1m m2 in 2002.