MarketView Snapshot Office Geneva Q4 2024

The office availability rate in Geneva contracted slightly further in Q4 2024, now standing at 3.7%. The CBD remains the most popular area, primarily for Grade A and large offices (>1,000 sqm). Thus, the wave of renovation projects in the city centre is starting to bear fruit, in view of the pre-lettings carried out in 2024. In the periphery, the availability rate has fallen below 9.0% for the first time since 2019, due to both a few large leases and the conversion of obsolete space (hence not vacant anymore). More than 1/3 of supply is located in regulated industrial zones (FTIs) where demand for office space is limited.

New constructions are expected to slow down as early as 2025. By 2028, around 175,000 sqm of office space are under construction or with a building permit. Future projects are concentrated in industrial areas (e.g. "Rubix", "Small City") in mixed-use buildings (offices + industrial). Yet a few office projects are underway in Geneva, either owned-occupied (e.g. "Pictet") or for multilet purposes ("Green Village", "Campus Biotech"). The long-term pipeline remains substential and concentrated in the FTI zone.

Rental activity is essentially based on endogenous demand. For expansion needs, it mostly comes from the public, education, health, and tech sectors. Otherwise, demand is based on moving needs with a focus on new premises. In 2024, the largest transactions took place in the CBD (finance, luxury, tech), the Airport (IT) or Les Acacias (Training).

Rents remain fairly stable in Geneva. They are up in the "prime" segment where supply is scarce, and down in secondary areas and in old buildings. Besides offered rent level, favourable conditions for tenants via incentives (free rent, financial contributions to development work) and greater flexibility in leases duration encourage the leasing of vacant space.