La Défense

With plans in place to increase the district’s appeal to investors over the next 10 years, La Défense is set to become an even more attractive place for businesses. There has been a shift away from the objective to create new buildings and space, which has been replaced by an emphasis on improvements to current office space and renovations of the urban environment.

Costs

For companies looking for office space in and around Paris, La Défense is a great cost-effective option. While comparative spaces in the city centre can reach up to €1000 per person per month, the prices in La Défense are more likely to be in the bracket of €500 – 800 per person per month for serviced office space. It is always important to remember that serviced offices usually cover a variety of amenities such as meeting rooms, parking, business support services and Internet, and as such can offer great value for money when compared to traditional leases.

Office sizes

Instant Offices are able to accommodate most enquiries, from one person through to 100 or more depending on the specifics so whether you are an entrepreneur looking for coworking space, a small business or start-up looking for a small private office, or a major company in need of larger spaces, we’ll have an option to suit your needs. 

Why choose La Défense?

While the majority of tourists that visit Paris each year tend to focus their excursions on Tour Eiffel, the Louvre and Notre Dame, if they travelled a little further west, outside of the centre of the city they would find an area that is sometimes described as ‘the world’s museum of modern architecture. Not only does the area have quick links to central Paris, it is also considerably cheaper to rent office space here making it the ideal option.  
  

Five things you probably didn’t know about La Défense:

• Home to approximately 38m sq.ft. of office space
• Tour First (standing at 231m) is the tallest building in La Défense
• The Grande Arche de la Défense is double the size of the Arc de Triomphe and the Notre-Dame Cathedral could through it
• In 2014, La Défense office take-up rose 123% to 230,000m²; its best performance since 2008
• There are 2,600 hotel rooms in La Défense

Since its inception in 1958, La Défense has grown to the point that it is now Europe’s largest purpose-built business district. The majority of France’s largest companies have their headquarters based here including Société Générale, oil and gas giant, Total, and the world’s largest nuclear company, Areva. In addition to major domestic companies some of the biggest global names are also based here and include HSBC, American Express and Oracle Corporation.

Due to some 400,000m² of new and restructured buildings being opened in 2014 the current vacancy rate is around 12-13%. This is expected to drop significantly over the next couple of years due to the focus being on regenerating existing space rather than developing new buildings. 

The very reason why La Défense was established appears to now be slightly holding back the area. Its traditional status as business hub needs to be transformed into more of social hub for people to live, work and learn in a similar fashion to New York, Tokyo and London. Plans to build at least 400 homes per year in the area along with the renovation of around 150,000m² of office space every year aim to make sure that La Défense remains one of the most important centres for business in the world.