The Ghent office market is in excellent shape. In less than 10 month's time, three major transactions have been concluded with an overall volume of 64.000m². It involves three new housing estate projects on the site The Loop and in the immediate vicinity of the Ghent Saint Peter's railway station. A quarter of the available volume of approximately 240.000m² has already been occupied, even before the premises have been delivered.

Owing to these transactions, the Ghent office market is heading for a very good year. According to the real estate magazine Expertise News, the Ghent office market boasted 48.000 m² of transactions, thus even ranking second after Brussels (with 81.000m² of volume transactions) but well ahead of Antwerp (with 32.000m² of volume transactions).

In December 2009, plans were being announced of the new office building at The Loop, in the armpit which resulted from the intersection between the E40 motorway and the Kortrijksesteenweg. KBC will centralize its supporting service. In all, approximately 21.000m² of new offices will be built. The construction works were initiated in March 2010 and would be in use by mid 2012.

In September 2010, the Flemish authorities decided to construct a new office building for the Flemish Environmental Agency (VMM) at The Loop, with an overall surface of 7.500m², to be used as centralised location of the field organisations of the VMM. The very same Flemish authorities also decided in September 2010 to construct a new Flemish Administrative Centre with a surface of 36.000m² at the Fabiolalaan, in the immediate vicinity of Ghent Saint Peter's railway station. They intend to use the office building at the beginning of the year 2014.

In less than ten month's time, those three transactions alone have registered 64.000m² new office surfaces. With 155.000m² of yet to be developed office space at The Loop and 82.000m² at Ghent Saint Peter's railway station, already 25% has already been occupied, even before the office buildings have been effectively delivered.

During the first three quarters of 2010, approximately 60.000m² of transaction volume have been registered on the Ghent office market. This result exceeds the volume of the entire year 2008 (51.400m²) and approaches the volume of 2009 (42.900m² + 20.800m² KBC The Loop). 2010 thus seems to become a particularly promising year for the Ghent office market.

According to the real estate magazine Expertise News, owing to two major transactions of the Flemish authorities, the Ghent office market with a total of 48.000m² of transactions volume has become the second largest market in the third quarter of 2010, following Brussels (81.000m²), but well ahead of Antwerp (32.000m²).

Other indicators are also illustrating that the Ghent office market is prospering. In comparison with 2009, the lack of occupancy has remained stable with approximately 60.000m² or 4.4 per cent of the overall office supply. The frictional lack of occupancy of 6 per cent is considered to be acceptable.

Information

Department of Economy, Mathias Vandewyngaerde, Sint-Niklaasstraat 27/401, 9000 Gent, tel. 09 266 84 21, fax 09 266 84 49, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Competent

Mr. Mathias De Clercq, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Economy, Youth and Self-Employed, Town Hall, Botermarkt 1, 9000 Gent, tel. 09 266 54 00,
fax 09 266 54 19, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it