Office real estate: in 2021, more installations, less investment

In Île-de-France, take-up, i.e. the total surface area of ​​premises where a new occupant has settled, amounts to 1,85 million m², an increase of 32% compared to compared to 2020 for the region which concentrates most of the market. These figures are nevertheless lower than those of 2019, when take-up reached 2,3 million m².

Immostat, which brings together BNP Paribas Real Estate, CBRE, JLL and Cushman & Wakefield, does not provide figures for the whole of France.

In mid-2021, with the opening of anti-Covid vaccination to the adult population, "companies brought out the real estate projects they had put in the fridge, thinking that we could resume normal activity", comments with AFP Virginie Houzé, director of studies and research at JLL.

Virginie Houzé notes, however, that the average size of transactions has fallen by 20%, with a sharp drop in installations for offices over 5000m².

Investment in real estate is still down compared to 2020, struggling to reach 24,9 billion euros for the whole of France, a drop of 8%, and 14,7 billion for France. Ile-de-France, a decrease of 25%.

Referring to longer-than-expected negotiations on prices and a transfer of certain investors to the residential market, Ms. Houzé explains that "the year 2020 on the rental market was tough because of the crisis and that normally generates uncertainties”. She adds that transactions outside Île-de-France have increased to 40% of the total against 25% usually, driven by activity in the logistics sector.