In the anniversary edition of our magazine, we gave companies in the maritime and logistics sector a chance to showcase themselves. Ceusters has been active as a real estate broker for 80 years and one of the only ones to effectively focus on commercial real estate.
“Our founder Hugo Ceusters adopted this focus from, among others, the UK, where this had existed for some time,” says Head of Office Agency, Ronny Nuten. “At the time, there were very few players on the Belgian market with a purely commercial focus. Meanwhile, we have grown into a company with 100 employees, head office in Antwerp and branches all over Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia.”
“We work within our organisation with two pillars. First, the agency part that focuses on commercial real estate. The other part is the management and administration of commercial real estate in all its facets. A good example of this is Wijnegem Shopping Center, where we have been responsible for management and administration for more than twenty-five years. We can safely say that we manage about 51 per cent of all shopping centres in Belgium.”
“Our agency department is then mainly active in the field of offices, retail properties and SME and industrial properties. Finally, we also carry out appraisals on behalf of just about all the major banks. That is a department that is growing very strongly.”
How have you seen the world of commercial real estate evolve after corona?
“In the office landscape then, it had quite an impact. By now, hybrid working is here to stay. We see that people are gradually working in the office again. It turns out that not everyone can work from home optimally or people are even tired of working from home. So we are increasingly seeing an evolution towards a healthy balance between working at home and in the office.”
“For many facility managers, it is currently quite difficult to determine how many workstations they should provide or reserve. In practice, we see that a lot of people want to work at home especially on Wednesdays and Fridays. The more flexible use of working time will also continue. For instance, we often see people working from home first and then coming to the office after the traffic jam.”
Are there enough commercial premises available?
“In Antwerp, we face a vacancy rate of around 8 to 9 per cent,” says colleague Harm Van Zegbrouck, responsible for the port region, among others, at Ceusters. “There is a particular need for sufficient sustainable offices. Sustainability is at the top of the list when a company is looking for new real estate. The better the EPC value (Energy Performance Certificate) the easier and quicker an office space or building will be let or sold.”
You are also very active in the port of Antwerp?
“Obviously. Here in particular we see that building owners have understood very well that a building will only sell smoothly if it is sustainable and ‘future-proof’. The Atlantic House located on Noorderlaan is such an example of owners who think along with tenants. New offices today are no longer built at risk. Currently, outside Campus West on Linkeroever, there is little new construction in the pipeline. We expect there will be more demand for offices once the Oosterweel works on the Antwerp Ring Road enter their next phase.”
