Office market Basel

Although the Basel office market developed pleasingly in 2022, the supply of available office space there noticeably increased. The availability rate rose from 5.4% to 5.9%, which means that 140,400 m² of office floor space in Basel stood vacant as of end 2022.

The increase in the supply of available office space has two main causes. One of them is Roche’s consolidation of office usage in its second skyscraper in Basel’s Wettstein district. That freed up over 30,000 m² of office space in the city centre for occupation by new tenants. The other main cause is the various new buildings such as B City, CLIME, Syd, Werkarena and Stücki Park that have come onto the market recently. Numerous office space units in those buildings still have not been leased yet.

Vacancy rate in CBD doubles

Office space availability increased the most year-on-year in Basel’s central business district, where the supply of vacant office space more than doubled, raising the availability rate there from 3.5% to 7.6%. Conversely, in Kleinbasel, a total of 13,800 m² less office space is available for lease compared to a year ago. The Breite/St. Alban submarket registered the highest availability rate at 9.3%.

However, the increase in supply should not obscure the fact that Basel also recorded a number of major leasings in 2022. In the Peter Merian Haus, which was previously used by Roche and has since been repositioned, space has been leased by computer software company Adobe, specialty chemicals firm Arxada and the Swiss Post. Life science company LifeMine Therapeutics will set up its European headquarters in Basel’s Klybeck neighbourhood, where it will utilise 3,900 m² of office and laboratory space.

Decline in new construction activity

In 2024 and 2025, much less new office space will be completed compared to prior years. The office vacancy rate in Basel therefore looks set to gradually diminish. The market climate, however, will remain challenging on the whole because there is potential for further large-scale development projects on many pockets of land in the Basel region over the next ten years.