European office take-up to hit 9.2 million sqm in 2019

European office take-up is expected to reach 9.2 million sqm by the end of 2019, down marginally by 4 percent from last year’s volume, according to Savills. A shortage of good quality, available space across Europe’s CBDs is limiting occupiers’ choices as average vacancy rates dropped from 6.1 percent to 5.4 percent over the past 12 months. “As the European economy edges nearer to full capacity, job growth will remain positive, but more modest than in recent years. The strongest growth will come from the knowledge-led sectors, including professional services, science and high-tech,” said Jeremy Bates, EMEA head of occupational markets at Savills. “The occupational story remains resilient, though European occupiers will be more cost-conscious as productivity moderates, and will therefore look to adopt new workplace strategies to boost output and control costs.”