Office market Bern

The supply of available office space in the Bern region increased marginally by 1,100 m² last year to 63,300 m² as of end-2023. The availability rate edged up by 0.1 percentage point to 2.2%.

Searching for office space in the CBD is hopeless

The shortage of available office space in the city of Bern’s central business district worsened further in 2023 as the vacancy rate there fell to a record-low 0.1%. Slight increases in office-space availability were registered in the submarkets Länggasse-Felsenau (+2,200 m²) and Bümpliz-Oberbottigen (+2,100 m²).

Transport services company BLS disclosed plans to consolidate its three current office locations in Bern in 8,000 m² of office space in the Forum West building on Europaplatz square starting in 2025. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, which will continue to use the building until that time, will then move into a new administrative building in Zollikofen owned by the federal government.

The market has become noticeably more dynamic

A second major leasing of 10,000 m² of office space was landed in the Businesspark in Liebefeld, which had stood practically completely vacant ever since Swisscom moved out of the building around three years ago. Canton Bern will now accommodate school classes there for at least ten years as a replacement location for school buildings in Bern during their renovation. Dazwischen GmbH leased around 3,500 m² of space at Brunnmattstrasse 21 in order to sublet it in smaller compartmentalised units to tenants for interim use. Dazwischen GmbH thus now already operates four addresses in Bern’s Mattenhof district.

Mounting pressure to cut costs is forcing the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG) to organise its use of office space more efficiently. One initial action taken has been to relocate departments. SRG’s senior management moved from the company’s high-rise building into the adjacent Trakt A wing, and SRG’s international news and information service Swissinfo was moved into the radio studio on Schwarztorstrasse. Those premises were vacant because some programmes are now produced in Zurich. As a result of its smaller space utilization footprint, SRG is looking for replacement tenants. One of them – the Norwegian embassy – has leased almost one entire floor in the 14-storey high-rise.

The Swiss Post, which is also feeling pressure to cut costs, will give up its IT department’s office location in Zollikofen at the end of 2024. Its IT personnel in the greater Bern area will work in the future at Swiss Post’s headquarters in WankdorfCity or at the Engehalde data centre in Bern. Swiss Post’s overarching intention is to consolidate a number of smaller office locations scattered throughout Switzerland into twelve regional office hubs.