Office leasing market in Cologne Q2-2025
In the first half of 2025, the office letting market in Cologne achieved take-up of around 115,600 m², which corresponds to an increase of 73.8% compared to the first half of 2024. Despite the significant growth, sales were still about 17% below the ten-year average.
The vacancy rate rose to 4.3% in the 2nd quarter of 2025. This was an increase of 30 basis points compared to the previous quarter and 45 basis points compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The prime rent in the 2nd quarter of 2025 was EUR 34.45/m². Compared with the previous quarter, it decreased by 1.6% and by 15.4% compared with the same quarter a year earlier. The median rent remained unchanged in the 2nd quarter of 2025 at EUR 17.50/m² compared to the previous quarter, but was 3.6% higher than in the same period a year earlier.
Julian Turner, Director and Team Leader Office Agency at Savills in Cologne, comments: “After a positive start to the year in the first quarter, the momentum in the Cologne office leasing market slowed somewhat in the second quarter of 2025. Demand remains subdued, especially in the large-scale segment. Only four deals over 2,000 m² in the entire quarter speak for themselves. The largest letting amounted to around 7,100 m². Many companies are currently rethinking their space requirements in the course of hybrid working models. As a result, there are fewer large-volume applications. At the same time, the economic environment is causing additional restraint: the willingness to conclude new leases or move is limited. Against this background, we are observing that users are increasingly cost-conscious.”
In view of the ongoing economic uncertainty, the reluctance to let new leases is likely to continue, which would have a dampening effect on take-up. Savills also expects the prime rent to fall slightly by the end of the year.
