Deutsche Pfandbriefbank : 28.11.2019 German office market economy again slightly weaker in the third quarter 2019

Munich, 28 November 2019 - In comparison to the previous year, the office market economy in Germany continues to be weaker this year. For the third quarter in a row, the pbbIX real estate index, which tracks the development of the BIG 7 office markets in Germany, fell slightly and now stands at 0.67 points. The index has therefore lost 0.13 points since the beginning of the year and is well below its high of 1.30 points in the third quarter of 2016. Nevertheless, the German office real estate market is still clearly expanding, albeit at a slowing pace.

Economic development remains the main cause for concern, whilst the markets for office space and investment continue the positive development of the last quarters. The longer the economic downturn continues, and the more this downturn affects value creation and employment in the service sector, the more office markets will come under pressure.

At comparatively high letting rates, vacancies reduced further during the third quarter. Due to competition for this scarce supply, rents continued to increase in top locations as well as on average. The situation on the investment markets was similar: in the autumn quarter, cash inflows for office property purchases rose significantly quarter-on-quarter. This increase was exclusively down to domestic investors. With the capital inflows, initial yields once again fell after moving sidewards for several months.

On the individual markets, the pbbIX is naturally more volatile than the aggregated index. In the third quarter, Stuttgart not only reached its highest level of 1.02 points, but also rose the most compared to the previous quarter with an index level of 0.78 points. Berlin ranked second with an index level of 0.93 points. In cyclical terms, Munich is less dynamic with a pbbIX level of 0.41 points.

Notes to the editors:

The pbbIX index family comprises a composite index, as well as seven individual indi-ces tracking the key German office property markets of Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart (including their respective catchment areas). pbbIX describes the development of the office markets. The zero line corre-sponds to the long-term trend. If the index is above the zero line, the office market is better than the long-term average. From a value of 1.0 points, one speaks of a boom.

The indices, which pbb publishes in cooperation with vdp Research, provide investors and lenders with comprehensive information on the current performance of office properties in Germany.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (www.pfandbriefbank.com) is a specialist lender for commercial real estate finance and public investment finance in Europe and the United States of America. pbb is a major issuer of Pfandbriefe, which makes it also an important player in the European covered bond markets overall. pbb is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

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