In almost 50 years, the office stock has more than doubled within the area of Grand Paris Metropolis, rising from 20 to over 42 million m². In order to understand this growth and to be aware of the current services sector stock and anticipate the major trends already underway, Apur juxtaposes the changes in surface areas and their geographical whereabouts with data on building and conversion permits, the rate of vacancy, rents and employment trends.
Paris, where nearly 70% of metropolitan offices were concentrated in 1975, accounted for only 42% in 2022. Over the last ten years, development in the metropolitan region has intensified and three territories outside Paris are home to three-quarters of this growth. Plaine Commune (2.5 M m²) has seen its office stock increase sixfold, in Paris Ouest La Défense (8.3 M m²) it quadrupled and in Paris Est Marne&Bois (1,5 M m²) it has increased more than tenfold. The analysis of administrative permits shows that the growth of 4.8 million m² of office stock between 2013 and 2022 was mainly driven by construction, with building permits for 8 million m², the demolitions of 2 million m² and 1.8 million m² transformed, even though new dynamics had begun to emerge.
Cross referencing these quantitive data with the number of jobs reveals a certain incongruity between the creation of office space and the volume of employment created within the metropolis as a whole. While the number of jobs increased by 7.6%, the surface area of office space grew more rapidly by +10.6%. On the territorial scale some areas such as Paris and Paris Terres d’Envol, experienced only a slight rise or fall in square metres while the number of jobs increased considerably. In contrast, the office stock in other areas increased faster than the level of employment. The difficult task of comparing these figures with the level of vacancy, due to the scope of data, has enabled the analysis to be completed and to establish that the rate of vacancy was higher in sectors where large surface areas had been recently built.
By linking the different indicators to the dynamics of the metropolitan office stock, this study also highlights the main challenges and issues that lie ahead, of which are:
- The new expectations of companies to relocate in mixed and attractive neighbourhoods.
- To develop the office stock more through adapting than creating anew.
- The major transformation to come of the office stock built in the 1985-95s.
- The potential for reducing surface areas through telework and a lower surface area ratio per employee.
- The impact of 168 public transport railway stations between 2020 and 2030 of which will be 68 Grand Paris Express stations.
- The gap between the creation of office jobs and the office stock.
