Key findings

1. The share of energy label A in the demand for office space in the Netherlands more than doubled between 2011 (24%) and 2021YTD (53%). The demand is primarily concentrated in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. This demand will continue unabated in the coming period.

2. The demand for sustainable offices will increase in the coming years, partly as a result of increasingly stringent government sustainability criteria. As of 1 January 2023, it will be prohibited by law to occupy an office building with an energy label D or worse. In 2030 this will be stepped up to energy label A.

3. The office market in the main cities faces a considerable need for sustainability upgrades as 1.8 million sq. m. of office space currently does not comply with the requirements that will take effect in 2023. Even the most optimistic scenario for sustainability upgrades, in which the speed at which these upgrades are performed is almost three times as high as in recent years, shows that 1.3 million sq. m. will become unlettable in 2023 as a result of more stringent legislation.

4. Over the past ten years, companies in the Netherlands have been increasingly willing to pay for a sustainable office (at least energy label A) and less so for a non-sustainable office (energy label B or worse). This difference in willingness will polarise further in the coming period due to stricter sustainability criteria of the Dutch government.

5. In the coming period it is likely that the value of sustainable offices will increase and that of non-sustainable offices will decrease.

Read the full report here.