MARCH.07.2013

A study was made by the brussels region and its regional development company to examine the vacancy of offices in the brussels capital region . Brussels does not react too badly to the economical crisis. An average of 6 to 8% is reasonable but some parts of Brussels like Quartier Léopold or districts which have bad public transport connections are more badly hurt. A hard core of long empty offices can be estimated at 2-3 pc. The other 2-3 pc are projects waiting for authorization or buildings in transit (awaiting a new owner or a new tenant)

2 more problematic cases: first, the neighborhoods that are the farthest from the center suffer tremendously. Especially the areas that are hard to reach by public transport have the most unoccupied levels.

And then ,  SDRB and the Brussels region invested in particular the Leopold district where the EU institutions, lobbies and Eu-related organizations are located. The Leopold district is facing them now with an average of 12pc empty buildings. Some 37 offices in Leopold district are now empty. Both older buildings as younger buildings are now empty.

According to the SDRB one has the needs of the European institutions in new office buildings overestimated. It states that the european neighborhood now has many empty offices but, all compared there are more empty buildings in the suburbs of Brussels, the so called “Rand” (with a major exception for the airport zone).

We state that the new ways of doing business, particularly based on Internet and ingenious technologies (teleworking, coworking, smaller teams)  has  consequences for the demand for new offices. Despite the large number of vacant buildings, there are still new projects of offices ongoing. We can therefore speak of a saturation of the market, particularly in the European Quarter. Of course, the conversion of office buildings into housing is one of the solutions in Brussels but it will not immediately and wholly eliminate the surplus of offices.

© Video Henry Borzi

Miguel D. DESNERCK