It is clear that there will be less demand for office space in the future, and this will hit Brussels particularly hard given its significant service sector. A major player such as the European Commission aims to reduce its office space requirements by 25 per cent, which is a good indicator of what lies ahead for Brussels following the Covid crisis.

There had already been a significant vacancy rate for office space in Brussels for several years, even though the property sector maintains that a vacancy rate of up to 7 per cent is normal in a market that was essentially a kind of local game of musical chairs. There were not many new office tenants coming into Brussels, but there was a constant circulation of end-users leaving an outdated building to move to a fresh new location, after which the vacated building was in turn refurbished to attract yet another user.