"The investment market has performed strongly in H1 2018 with good levels of demand for prime offices from institutional, overseas and private investors"

"Dry spell for deals but signals of a flood pending"

"Almost all of the evidence suggests that, for the next two to three years, office space will become even scarcer and correspondingly more expensive. Office occupiers would be well advised to prepare accordingly and develop strategies to deal with an even more acute supply shortage. Going forward, from 2020/21 the outlook is more unclear simply because we do not currently know how strong the growth in supply will be at that point. In addition, there are a number of factors (greater efficiency of space via co-working, slower urban growth and the ageing population) which are highly likely to result in slower growth in demand for office space, albeit this is almost impossible to quantify specifically owing to the complexity of the circumstances."

" The above-average performance of Germany’s office markets continued in 2016. This resulted in the highest take-up since 2007, rising rents and diminishing availability. In central locations in particular, demand is significantly greater than the supply. Consequently, many occupiers are shifting to the next best locations or further out into the periphery, causing an increasing supply shortage and rising rents in these submarkets. While it remains to be seen how new office concepts will impact occupation of office space, demand is not expected to decline for the time being. Growth in new-build office space remains below average. As a result, there will be no meaningful improvement in the supply shortage over the coming years. Occupiers should, therefore, take a proactive approach by extending existing leases prematurely or becoming owner-occupiers. "

"Office rents in the top six cities have risen continuously since 2004 with the exception of 2009, the year following the financial crisis. We believe this rental growth will continue over the coming years, regardless of the consequences of the Brexit vote, and put forward three arguments in favour of this assertion. Trends in office rents are dependent on three influencing factors: demand for, supply of and development costs of office space. Consequently, we will look at these three aspects more closely below. In brief, however, all three criteria point towards office rents continuing (and accelerating) their growth over the coming years."