Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, the demand for new office space has fallen by a good half. However, experts do not assume that the office will disappear from everyday life despite the pandemic and increased home offices.
The corona crisis is making Germany's companies more settled: since the beginning of the pandemic, new offices have been less in demand. In the second and third quarters, according to market data from the major international broker Savills, German companies rented only half as much new office space as the long-term average. Instead of a million, only half a million square meters were re-let per quarter.
"Many companies currently prefer to extend their current rental contracts," says Michael Pink, head of market observation and research at the British company's German subsidiary. The vacancy rate has increased for the first time since 2010, but only slightly. In the top seven cities, even more office space is currently rented than at the beginning of the year. "
Brokers, economists and management consultants do not assume that the office will disappear from everyday work in the foreseeable future: "In the future, many companies may need less office space because their employees are working more and more from home," says financial market expert Philipp Wackerbeck von Strategy &, the management consultancy of the auditing company PwC. "However, this will not be possible on a one-to-one basis because even after the pandemic, employees will probably be distributed across larger offices than before."
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