Lotfi Behlouli is director, office agency, of JLL Luxembourg JLL Luxembourg

Lotfi Behlouli is director, office agency, of JLL Luxembourg JLL Luxembourg

Office agency director of JLL Luxembourg weighs in on how the macroeconomic situation could impact real estate in the grand duchy in the new year.

We have good fundamentals on our markets, even if the macroeconomic situation is not so good. In Luxembourg, we still have strong parameters that give us a bit of flexibility. I cannot know what the macroeconomic situation will be next year. Some economists are talking about a recession. In the past, Luxembourg has always been resilient in these situations compared to other countries.

For commercial real estate on the central markets--basically Luxembourg ­City--we’re quite confident that it will be fine because those districts have a low vacancy rate. We’ll be able to balance between demand and offer.

At the same time, this year we saw an increase in the rents, especially in the central district. Occupiers are trying to change their organisation, to move to a hybrid model with flexibility and services… There are many challenges on the occupier side, e.g., talent attraction and retention, sustainability. For the landlord or investor, sustainability is really important.

For 2023, we don’t see that rents will be impacted. I think they will be flat because there’s uncertainty. Inflation has an impact on construction, for investors or landlords but also for occupiers because obviously it means that real estate projects have to be reviewed. This inflation hopefully should be limited for next year, we hope, but in the meantime the costs are not the same.