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by bowlofpetunias
4502 days ago
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This may not apply anywhere else (though I suspect it does), but in the Netherlands the office space market is deliberately kept obscure due to the much higher supply than demand. Many thousands of square meters of office space are currently vacant, and real estate investors are terrified of the paper value of that office space collapsing. As a result, cost and availability are deliberately kept obscure. Cheap small office space is abundant, but usually not offered publicly. You have to ask, and then you get things like "sure, we can split this huge space into smaller units", or "we'll throw in x-months free rent" (so they can officially keep the rent, and therefor the value, high). |
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Absolutely, this is the norm rather than the exception. However, asymmetric information only works as long as most parties in the market are acting in this way. As soon as people start being more open, this changed the landscape very quickly, which is what we are seeing in London.
If the market does indeed stay that way, rather than wasting time talking to individual spaces we are working on technology that should be able to inform all those with space (even if they keep the price hidden) of search and budget requirements of a potential. This should at least open dialogue.