Office market Basel

The Basel office market expanded by more than 200,000 m² between 2020 and 2023. Although no additional newbuild space came onto the market in 2024, the supply of available office space in Basel nonetheless increased by 18,200 m², leaving 154,000 m² vacant at the end of 2024 and pushing the vacancy rate up to 6.4% from 5.5% a year earlier.

The biggest increases in supply were registered in Basel’s central business district (+17,300 m²) and in Kleinbasel West (+5,300 m²), whereas the amount of vacant office space in Gundeldingen contracted (–7,200 m²). At the time of collecting the latest data on the Basel office market, there were twelve properties with more than 1,000 m² of space on offer in the city centre, including four with over 4,000 m² of available office space. The availability rate in Basel’s central business district accordingly climbed to 9.2%, which is the highest level by far compared to other Swiss city centres.

The 53,000 m² of newbuild office space in the pipeline for the 2025–2027 period is less than in previous years, but the accumulated oversupply of office space is probably too big for it to be completely absorbed by tenants.

The Basel Commercial Association plans to build a new education and meeting centre on its property at Aeschengraben 15. During the centre’s construction phase, the association’s operations will be moved for three years to an interim location on the former Klybeck industrial site. BASF, too, has moved its Swiss headquarters into a completely renovated neighbouring building on the Klybeck site. Another educational institution, Academia Language School, rented a larger office space (>5,000 m²) at Hochstrasse 16.

The Basel Research Centre for Child Health and the FHNW School of Business are getting new locations, and over 20,000 m² of office space is being built on the former Volta Nord industrial site. Lonza wants to enlarge its headquarters on the Lindenhof site and plans to erect two additional high-rise buildings next to its landmark-protected Lonza Tower.

The Nauentor newbuild complex being erected next to the Basel train station offers potential for 50,000 m² to 80,000 m² of work space. However, delays were encountered in the planning stage, so the complex won’t be built to completion before 2032. At the same time, transformations of former industrial sites (Wolf, Dreispitz, Rosental Mitte, Klybeck) continue to progress: additional room for workspaces will come into being there as well.

The challenging leasing situation in the Basel office market at present is prompting a more frequent examination and implementation of conversion projects. Given the tight housing market and the sustained competition from completely renovated and newbuild office spaces, conversions into housing could be a sensible solution to the vacancy problems facing old office buildings. However, building repurposings are unlikely to substantially alter the prevailing conditions in the Basel housing and office markets.