The trend is pointed out by Savills in its latest report about the European office market. According to the consultant, the fall in unemployment is leading to this increase in demand, and tenants look for places outside the CBD, where rents have registered an average annual growth of 4%, standing 2% above the market peak between 2007 and 2010.
The lack of affordable space and quality is reflecting in the search for alternatives, where lease values are on average 70% lower than the CBD. But even in the periphery, rents are growing 5.6% a year, standing 8% above the average of the last 5 years.
For Alice Marwick, Deputy Director of Savills European Research Department, “all over Europe, we are seeing that the volume of new leased spaces is not enough to meet current demand and, therefore, tenants will have to deal with two more years with this shortage of supply."
She adds that "limited supply and rises in rents have resulted in a greater flexibility by the tenants in their demands, and are therefore more likely to change location in order to settle in a better building with a more affordable rent, even with a secondary location”.