A recovery in rents for offices in prime central business district (CBD) locations in Europe has been noted by Savills. According to the firm, CBD office markets have "bottomed out" and some are already showing rental growth, most notably in the UK, Sweden and Germany. The organisation is predicting rises of 11.1 per cent in London's West End, 7.9 per cent in Stockholm and 3.5 per cent in Berlin over the course of next year.
Other cities that are expected to see a recovery in the long term are Milan, Madrid and Paris, Savills added. Eri Mitsostergiou, director of European research at the company, commented: "Assuming that the problems in Greece do not turn into a wider disorderly default, our pan-European rental index shows that overall prime CBD office markets are gradually on the road to recovery."
The predictions of increasing rents in some European locations may be enough to tempt real estate investors back to the market, after CB Richard Ellis noted that some countries saw commercial property transaction volumes decline during the first half of this year, compared to the same period in 2010. Portugal, Spain and Italy were among those to see the biggest falls in investment, but the UK and France also suffered from lower levels of activity.