News from the real estate network

In the 1st quarter of 2021 there was an enormous shortage of investment-grade commercial properties for sale in Germany’s top 7 cities. The transaction volume was thus correspondingly low and totalled €3.4bn, which translates into a year on year decrease of 54 %.

At the close of the 1st quarter of 2021, take-up of office space in Germany’s top 7 cities remained stable with a total of 655,300 m², posting year on year growth of 1 %.

Overall, the market for industrial and logistics properties in Germany’s top 7 cities proved resilient in 2020. The volume of transactions in Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich rose by 42 % year on year to €2.45bn.

Owner-occupiers were the mainstay of the Hamburg industrial and logistics market, their share of take-up rose from just 15 % to 51 % within the space of one year, reports GPP member Grossmann & Berger.

As had been expected, in 2020 the volume of commercial real estate traded on the investment market in Berlin fell short of the record set in 2019. By the end of the 4th quarter the total trading volume stood at €7.36bn.

In the 4th quarter of 2020 office-letting in Germany’s top 7 cities began to increase for the first time since the start of the pandemic. GPP recorded take-up of space in Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich totalling 2.47m m².

At the end of this extraordinary year 2020 brisk trading in investment-grade commercial properties returned to Germany’s top 7 cities. A third of the transaction volume (TAV) of €29.9bn was generated in the 4th quarter.

The transaction volume shot up by nearly one fourth on the Hamburg investment market. Due to GPP member Grossmann & Berger, the market ignored the coronavirus crisis completely.

According to GPP member Grossmann & Berger, take-up of space on the office market Hamburg totalled 340,000 m² in 2020. Market activities were entirely dominated by the coronavirus pandemic.

During the course of this exceptional coronavirus year 2020 a varying picture of demand for industrial and logistics properties in Germany’s top 7 property markets emerged.