Office market Bern

The supply of available office space in the Bern region increased by 6,800 m² in 2024 and currently amounts to 70,100 m², nudging the availability rate there up to 2.4% at present from 2.2% at the end of 2023.

Expansions in supply were registered in the submarkets Mattenhof-Weissenbühl (+5,400 m²) and Breitenrain-Lorraine (+4,900 m²), whereas the amount of available office space in the Bümpliz-Oberbottigen submarket contracted (–5,100 m²). Available office space in Bern’s central business district remains just as scarce as before: only 0.4% of the total stock of office space there was unleased as of end-2024.

Swiss cybersecurity firm Redguard moved into new offices within walking distance of Bern’s main train station. Phoenix Pharma Switzerland transferred its headquarters and around 100 on-the-job workspaces to the Liebefeld Businesspark in Köniz. The relocation was motivated by Bern’s central role in the national healthcare system and thus by the close proximity to public health authorities and federal policymakers. In the wake of Swisscom’s move out of the building in 2021, the Liebefeld Businesspark has since landed a number of new tenants, including Nau Media, Swiss Transfusion SRC, classrooms leased by Canton Bern, and now also Phoenix Pharma.

Practically no new office spaces were built to completion in the Bern market over the last three years. For the period from 2025 through 2027, investors now are pressing ahead with projects like the Bubenberg Centre, Bern 131, the modern Department of Defence administrative centre in Guisanplatz square, the Ittigen-Worblaufen Metropark, and the new building slated to house the Swiss National Science Foundation, and are erecting the first buildings of WankdorfCity 3. A large part of the planned office space has already been leased in advance. Nevertheless, vacancies in the Bern office market look set to increase slightly in the years ahead.

Two additional major projects, whose tenancy will free up a number of existing office spaces, constitute another reason for the projected uptick in vacancies. On one hand, construction work on a new medical research and training centre on the Inselareal site in Bern has already begun. And on the other hand, the new campus of the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Ausserholligen is on the verge of receiving its construction go-ahead. The university currently operates 24 different classroom locations in the city of Bern alone and would like to consolidate several departments for the first time on one campus.