Office space defeciency hovers over the French capital

The volume of office construction has declined to its six-year-low in Paris. If the demand for offices starts rising sharply, the city would face deficiency of such properties by 2012.

According to Christopher Armon-Jones, president of Drivers Jonas consultancy which forecasts such development of the situation, weak construction levels would lead to “absorption” of newly constructed properties, which may result in a significant shortage of offices by 2012.
 
Over the period from Q4 2009 to Q1 2010, volume of Paris office property construction has plunged by 20%. According to the analysts, this allows selling or leasing 864 thousand sq. m. of office space that were recently put on the market. However, in case of a rapid increase in demand for offices, the office stock may dwindle after 2011, GlobeSt.com says.
 
Moreover, only a half of 500 thousand sq. m. of new office space built during the period from October to March were rented-out. The inventory of non-leased offices works out more than 900 thousand sq. m. in the region of Ile-de-France, which is the core of the French state. Moreover, nearly 50% of such offices are located in the main business district of Paris La Défense.