In 2009, the letting market of the four big cities in the Randstad area of the Netherlands showed a mixed picture. The latest Marketview of CB Richard Ellis 'Randstad Offices' describes the developments on the Office Market.
In comparison with 2008, the letting market in The Hague developed favourable, thanks to the Dutch Tax Authorities and KPMG which took up a large office floor area (20,000 sq m and 10,000 sq m respectively). It should be noted, though, that since several years the take-up figure in The Hague is far below the long-term average take-up volume of this city and this was also the case in 2009. Whereas the letting market in Rotterdam had developed very favourably in 2008, demand of tenants fell strongly in 2009 and the take-up volume ended just below the 70.000 sq m, which was a drop of nearly 55% compared to 2008. Also in Amsterdam occurred lower office demand, although the take-up volume dropped less fast (around 24%) then in 2008 (about 30%). Remarkably, the renovated Atlas ArenA complex in office district Southeast attracted a lot of tenants, such as CapGemini and American Express, whereas not so long ago this complex had a lot of vacant office space. Because there was a little more office space let in Utrecht, the decrease of the take-up figure, which had been observed in Utrecht already for several years, came to a halt. The office satellite towns are still facing a rough time as office demand and vacancy of offices persist in their core cities. Nonetheless, Hoofddorp and Amstelveen attracted tenants such as BSH, Asics Europe and Esprit with new office projects. Commercial companies were rather awaiting, most activity on the letting market came from non-profit organisations.
Also the investment market for offices in The Hague performed better in 2009 than in 2008, thanks to the selling of the large Aegon (40,500 sq m), KPN (30,700 sq m) and CBS (Double U: 30,000 sq m) offices. Nearly € 230 million was invested in offices in The Hague (of which the greater part was generated by the aforementioned three investment transactions), against about € 80 million in 2008. In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, the trend of fewer transactions and fewer major deals just continued; these cities saw the total investment volume drop with more than 50% compared to 2008. Dutch and German investors dominated the investment market. Nearly all of the largest investment deals in the Randstad area were on the account of German investors.
Randstad Offices
