This gloomy picture is painted by DTZ, the most important international real estate adviser in the Brussels office market. Activity is still at a historically low level with 177,544 m2 of take-up since the beginning of the year and 64,102 m2 during the quarter. The Central Districts are hit severely both in terms of activity and availability. Prime rents have remained relatively stable over the quarter but DTZ expects a further decrease in the last quarter. Although some significant investment deals were recorded at the end of the quarter, investment levels are still very depressed. There are also signs, however, of increasing interest

from both local and international investors.

Given the size of the stock (12,807,976 m2), an availability of 11.76 percent means that the Brussels office market never had so much empty space at any given time in history (1,506,722 m2). The future pipeline is no consolation as more than 270,000 m2 of empty offi ces will be added to the market in the coming nine months. This could potentially push the availability level up to above 13 percent.

Furthermore, the observed levels of take-up since the beginning of the year are a comparable situation of to the late eighties, early nineties when levels of 260,000 m2 per year were the norm. Just 177,544 m2 of take-up was recorded since the beginning of this year (64,102 m2 during the third quarter). The central districts in particular are affected. Here the average quarterly take-up since the beginning of the year was only 28,600 m2 where since 2000 this average was 76,000 m2. At

the same time however, it seems that the decrease has now hit rock bottom:

take-up has been fairly stable since the beginning of the year.