Low levels of speculative office development and high demand mean that almost half of European office space under construction is already pre-let.

Savills’ latest European office report shows that the tech, media and professional business services sectors have been driving office space demand since 2018, which has led to vacancy rates dropping from 6.1 percent to 6 percent in the first quarter of 2019, 100 basis points below 2018’s first quarter figures. At the same time, very little new office projects are leaving occupiers with a lack of choice when it comes to finding high-quality workspaces. In its latest Real Estate Summary paper, UBS Asset Management has reported an 8 percent level of new space under construction in London that drops to 4.4 percent when pre-lets are taken into account. In Amsterdam, there is only 1.9 percent of speculative space being built.

Berlin and Paris CBD have the lowest vacancy rates at 1.5 percent, according to Savills, whil