Rents in most centres are now static, but falls have been registered in a number of key locations including Stockholm; Frankfurt; Berlin; Hamburg; Madrid; Edinburgh and the West End of London. Outside the core EU centres, performance has been even more erratic, and Tel Aviv, Israel, saw a 10.5 per cent slump in rents over the quarter.

However, the survey found a few centres where rents are continuing to grow, including Barcelona; the City of London; Manchester and Moscow. And Harare, Zimbabwe registered a 23 per cent rent rise in three months, reflecting the impact of hyperinflation.

Take-up figures show the full impact of declining occupier confidence, and in many locations take-up was 40 per cent down year-on-year. Central London has seen the biggest slump, with 2.33 million sf taken up during the third quarter of 2001, against 6.14 million sf in the equivalent period a year previously. Brussels witnessed a 55 per cent slump from 1.7 million sf to an estimated 775,000 sf while Paris saw a 33% decline from 6.89 million sf to 4.75 million sf.