Towards a Segmentation of Office Users: Empirical Evidence from Germany

Office markets in Europe are currently going through a severe downturn. At this point proprietors become more aware of the fact that tenants and their office space needs are more or less unfamiliar to them. In contrary to the retail sector, where market research on consumer behaviour is yet more sophisticated, office space is still not designed as a customized product. To be able to create products fit to the market, the anonymous collective of different types of space users has to be analysed and structured. In order to make out systematic differences between types of users, office space users shall be segmented into groups with homogeneous space preferences. Relevant segmentation factors may include the preferred micro and macro location, building type, office design or rent level. As a first empirical examination this study is designed to indicate differences and reveal patterns in time-adjusted rent levels for various types. The empirical analysis investigates (effective) rents considering specific contractual parameters. The geographically coded data comprise a range of building characteristics as well as tenant details like industry, credit score, company size etc. The study is based on the DID Rental Database ñ an internet based system recently developed by DID Deutsche Immobilien Datenbank GmbH which enables the analysis of original rental contract data provided by institutional investors and property consultants. DID, as part of the Investment Property Databank (IPD) network, is dedicated to the supply of independent market indices and portfolio benchmarks to the property industry.