Quality of Place

In a few months, Blue Gate Antwerp will welcome its first occupants. The brand new, eco-effective and water-bound redeveloped brownfield is exemplary for the ambitions of the city in catering for modern industries. Here, sustainable production facilities and state-of-the-art R&D departments will find their natural home.

The recent growth of Antwerp has also created an immense array of available office spaces, ranging from old industrial buildings to new developments, both in the heart of the city or at its outer borders.

Plenty of office space

Copyright | Stad Antwerpen I Wim Kempenaers

There are 1.7 million m2 of office space in the City of Antwerp, and so there are plenty of offices. The upper rental limits in the centre is 145 euros/m²/year.

Parameter	Value
Stock	1 742 881 m²
Vacancy	197 087 m²
Prime rent	145 EUR / m² / year

Source: Jones Lang Lasalle

Office space is cheaper in Antwerp than that of comparable quality in the major commercial centres in neighbouring countries. This is evident from standardised figures that include both maintenance costs and taxes. Total office space costs in Antwerp amount to around 166 euros/m²/year.

Office rental prices

**Prime rents for office space in EUR/m²/year in Q4 2015**
City	Occupancy cost
London (West End)	1 376
London (City)	838
Paris (CBD)	800
Paris (La Défense)	540
Manchester	410
Edinburgh	404
Frankfurt (CBD)	480
Birmingham	404
Glasgow	361
Munich (CBD)	426
Amsterdam (Sout Axis)	425
Dusseldorf (CBD)	318
Brussels (EU Leopold)	285
Lyon	300
Marseille	260
The Hague	210
Hamburg (CBD)	306
Eindhoven	160
Antwerp	155

Source: Cushman & Wakefield, Office snapshot Q3 2017 (11/2017)

Discover the available office hubs in Antwerp

Industrial space

There are 752 hectares of land in the City of Antwerp that are developed or have development potential for industry and logistics. Over 56 hectares of that is unused and unallocated. The upper rental limit for industry is 43-48 euros/m²/year, while for logistics the upper rental limit stands at 46 euros/m²/year.

**Industrial space in Antwerp in 2014**
Parameter	Value
Total surface area	752.22 ha
Unused unspend	56.80 ha
Prime rent industry	43-48 EUR / m² / year
Prime rent logistics	46 EUR / m² / year

Source: Arcadis and Jones Lang Lasalle, 2014

Occupancy cost

Cushman & Wakefield splits up the industrial rents for Belgium and France into those for logistic locations and those for manufacturing locations. For the other countries, only industrial rents are given for the logistic locations and no further splitting is done.

**Industrial rents for logistic locations in EUR/m²/year in Q3 2017**
City	Occupancy cost
London (Heathrow)	183
Bristol	98
Birmingham	83
Edinburgh	98
Schiphol	87,5
Frankfurt	72
Cologne	60
Rotterdam	62.5
Eindhoven	52,5
Antwerp	46

Source: Cushman & Wakefield, Industrial snapshot Q3 2017 (11/2017)

**Industrial rents for manufacturing locations in EUR/m²/year in Q3 2017**
City	Occupancy cost
Paris	125
Lyon	80
Strasbourg	80
Bordeaux	75
Marseille	70
Lille	70
Toulouse	65
Brussels	57,5
Antwerp	56
Ghent	44

Source: Cushman & Wakefield, Industrial snapshot Q3 2017 (11/2017)

Development areas

Blue Gate Antwerp

Blue Gate Antwerp is a brownfield of 103 hectares in the southwest of Antwerp that is being redeveloped into a high-quality waterfront and eco-effective business area. Blue Gate Antwerp offers space to innovative production companies, waterway-linked logistics companies and research and development, and is fully committed to the circular economy.

Blue Gate Antwerp wants to be CO2-neutral. The prevention or recycling of waste, the maximum and integral closing of material cycles, the use of renewable energy, the focus on green products… are all essential characteristics of the site.

Churchill Industrial Zone

The site is ideal for the development of a large-scale circular economy project. Within the port area the site is one of the few large remaining areas in the centre of Antwerp's industrial cluster.

The Antwerp Port Authority is offering an attractive industrial investment opportunity in the heart of Europe's main integrated industrial, maritime and logistics platform. The site is an ideal base for high-tech waste treatment. The project area is immediately available.

Saeftinghe Development Area

Saeftinghe Development Area, the northern expansion of the port on the Left Bank, comprises an area of approx. 1070 ha which will be developed for maritime, industrial and logistics activities. The construction of a tidal container dock is also planned here.

Logistic Park Schijns

The port is developing areas on both the Left bank and the Right bank for specific logistics activities with multimodal access. The Spatial Structural Plan for Flanders has pencilled in the development of two logistics area: The Logistics Park Waasland (left bank) and the Logistics Park Schijns (right bank)).

Retail space

There are over a million square meters of retail space in the City of Antwerp (excluding the hospitality industry and services). Frictional vacancy amounts to some 85 000 m², which means that there is ready availability for new investors.

Three-quarters of the retail space is located in shopping areas.

The top rental prices for retail space are in the centre of Antwerp around the Meir and Schuttershofstraat (1 750 euro/m² on average). Outside of the centre (Nationalestraat, Abdijstraat) the rental prices are much lower (300 euro/m² on average).

**Prime rent prices "main streets" city of Antwerp in EUR/m²/year**
Street	Occupancy cost
Meir	1 850
Schuttershofstraat	1 800
Huidevettersstraat	1 600
Wilde Zee	1 000
Nationalsestraat	650
Kammenstraat	450
Abdijstraat	300

Source: Jones Lang Lasalle

**Prime rents for retail in EUR/m²/year in Q3 2017**
City	Occupancy cost
London (West End)	16 146
Paris	13 255
Berlin	3780
Munich	4 440
Frankfurt	3 780
Hamburg	3 720
Cologne	3 540
Dusseldorf	3 420
Amsterdam	3 000
Glasgow	2 607
Antwerp	1 950
Brussels	1 850
Lyon	1841
Edinburgh	1 808
Manchester	1 747
Rotterdam	1 600
Maastricht	1 600
Lille	1 326
The Hague	1 250

Source: Cushman & Wakefield, Retail snapshot Q3 2017 (11/2017)

Affordable housing market

The cost of living in Belgium is lower than that of its neighbouring countries. The cost contains the average rent for housing as well as the cost for water, electricity and gas. The price comparison is shown with the average cost for the EU at 100. (source: Eurostat 2018)