The Cologne office market continues to see strong demand for space. However, despite advanced negotiations, companies are increasingly hesitant to sign final contracts. The primary reasons for this are a lack of planning certainty in a volatile economic and geopolitical environment. Instead of entering into new leases, many users, after intensive review, decide to extend existing lease agreements or postpone their relocation plans indefinitely. This reluctance is reflected in the take-up for the first half of 2026, which, at approximately 74,000 square metres, was almost 30 percent below the previous year's level.
Alexander Wunderle, Managing Partner (Office & Investment) at Angermann NRW, highlights that demand is fundamentally present. He notes that in many cases there is a lack of the necessary planning certainty for a binding decision-making process. This leads to companies with higher space requirements, in particular, intensively surveying the market, but their search processes, which can extend over months or even years, rarely result in concrete new leases. Large-volume lettings were an exception in the first half of the analysed period; instead, market activity was characterised by smaller and medium-sized space deals.
Location and Quality Dominate Leasing Decisions
The spatial concentration of demand remains focused on central and well-connected locations. The city centre, including Deutz, was the primary submarket of the Cologne office market, accounting for around 53 percent of the take-up. It is clear that users in this segment are also prepared to accept higher rents. There is no automatic shift to cheaper peripheral locations. Wunderle confirms that when planning a change of location, criteria such as quality, accessibility, and the general impact of the location are particularly decisive. This fact underpins that location and quality are more important to market participants than the pure rental price.
The development of rents reflects this pattern. While prime rent remains stable at a high level of EUR 32.10 per square metre, the average rent fell to EUR 17.80 per square metre. However, this decrease in average rent is not an indicator of reduced willingness to pay. Rather, it is due to the lower number of high-quality new-build spaces and premium deals in the reporting period, which would usually push the average value upwards. The demand for modern office spaces in attractive city centre locations remains significantly unchanged.
Market Segmentation and Outlook
Vacancy in the Cologne office market increased moderately by approximately 10,000 square metres to 460,000 square metres compared to the end of 2025, corresponding to an increase in the vacancy rate from 5.47 to 5.60 percent. At the same time, a clear segmentation of the market is becoming apparent. Modern spaces in established office locations continue to show good marketing prospects. However, older existing properties outside preferred locations are increasingly coming under pressure. According to Wunderle, incentives, fit-out quality, parking availability, and the speed of decision-making are crucial for marketing success here.
Angermann NRW forecasts a take-up of around 160,000 square metres for the full year 2026. The current market development is not due to a lack of attractiveness of Cologne as an office location, but primarily to the aforementioned uncertainties and the overall economic environment. Should this environment stabilise, it is expected that some of the currently deferred letting decisions could quickly lead to concrete contract conclusions.
