Savills has examined the German office leasing market in the first quarter of 2025
Here are the most important results:
- Take-up: In the 1st quarter of 2025, take-up amounted to 674,900 m², which corresponds to growth of around 13% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the last four quarters, take-up in the top 6 office letting markets was 2.4 million sqm, up 6% year-on-year but 21% below the 10-year average.
- Rental development: Prime rents rose 1.2% sequentially, while median rents rose 2.5%. – Vacancy: The vacancy rate increased by 60 basis points compared to Q4 2024, reaching 7.1% on average for the top 6 cities.
- View: Take-up in 2025 is expected to be above the previous year’s level, while the increase in prime rents is likely to be supported by continued demand for high-quality office space.
Take-up in the top 6 office rental markets* reached a volume of around 2.4 million m² in the past four quarters. Compared to the same period last year (Q2 2023 to Q1 2024), this represented an increase of 6%. Still, revenue remained 21% below the 10-year average. In the first quarter of 2025, around 674,900 m² of office space was taken up, which corresponds to an increase of around 13% compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Jan-Niklas Rotberg, Managing Director and Head of Office Agency Germany at Savills, comments: “The start of the year was positive for the top 6 office letting markets. Companies are showing more decisiveness again and are increasingly considering relocations. There is no uniform pattern – the momentum is noticeable across industries. In addition to the completed deals, we recorded a significant increase in enquiries and search orders in the first quarter. The talks are more optimistic, and large companies are also increasingly approaching us with concrete search mandates.”
Space consolidation for large companies
Individual large-scale lettings in particular supported take-up in the first quarter. The number of lettings over 10,000 m² remained at a low level with seven lettings. However, their share of take-up increased significantly and, at 27%, this was above the quarterly average of 21% over the last ten years. This is mainly due to the three largest take-ups of the quarter: with a size of over 30,000 m² each, they together accounted for around 19% of take-up.
“Despite current challenges, large deals are still being recorded, which was particularly noticeable in the first three months of this year. However, these decisions often take much longer due to the ongoing uncertainties – many applications have already been on the market for a longer period of time. In addition, there is a clear trend towards space efficiency: in the large-area segment, it is hardly a matter of expansion, but rather of optimization. And more and more often, consolidation measures are behind large-scale leases, in which companies merge several locations and adapt their space both qualitatively and quantitatively. As a result, despite large-volume closures, less area is absorbed overall,” explains Rotberg.
Antonia Wecke, Senior Consultant Research, adds: “The reasons for the consolidation of space are not only savings potential, but also the desire to strengthen the corporate culture. With a central location, companies want to strengthen the ‘sense of togetherness’ and the identification of employees with the company. In a hybrid working world, these aspects become more important, because companies hope that this will increase the presence of their employees in the office.”
Vacancies continue to rise, especially in peripheral locations
The vacancy rate continued to rise, reaching an average of 7.1% for the top 6 cities at the end of Q1 2025. Compared to the previous quarter, this meant an increase of 60 basis points, while the year-on-year increase was 150 basis points. Jan Rotberg classifies: “The vacancy rate is rising especially in peripheral locations, while central locations remain much more resilient. The overall increase in vacancies opens up opportunities for the conversion of office space, for example into co-living concepts or hotels. Owners are increasingly open to these transformation processes as they recognize the need in these segments. At the political level, however, there has often been a lack of targeted funding opportunities. Concrete efforts to examine this, as a Munich party recently announced, could advance the conversion of office space into (affordable) housing in the future.”
Users improve their qualities – rents rise
The trend of rising prime rents continues. The average prime rent of the top 6 cities increased by 1.2% compared to the previous quarter. The median rent also rose by 2.5% quarter-on-quarter to EUR 20.60/m². Rotberg comments: “The trend towards high-quality space and central locations continues. However, this does not mean that companies always move to prime locations or premium buildings. Rather, many users are striving to improve their previous standard by moving to higher-quality properties – without necessarily moving to a prime location or the best building.”
Outlook: Continued upturn in take-up – but at a low level
Jan-Niklas Rotberg is confident for the year: “We assume that the momentum of the market, as demonstrated in the first quarter, will continue. At the same time, prime rents are likely to continue to rise, as the trend towards high-quality office space is likely to continue.” Overall, Savills expects take-up to be above the previous year’s level. In a long-term comparison, however, the letting performance is likely to remain below average due to the persistently lower demand for space.
* Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich
Miete und Leerstandsrate_Q1-2025
Savills
