(Bloomberg) -- Uncertainty about U.K. immigration policy once the country leaves the European Union is hurting London's prospects for attracting corporate investment, according to Jaap Tonckens, chief financial officer at Unibail-Rodamco SE, Europe's biggest listed landlord.
For companies now deciding about where to invest in Europe, the cities of Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam have been “more appealing places” than London, Tonckens said in a conference call on Wednesday.
“Not because they don't like London, but because they don't know what the immigration policy is going to be,” Tonckens said. “There's more stability in continental Europe.”
Companies leased 2.6 million square meters of office space in the Paris region in 2017, the most in a decade, according to Unibail-Rodamco. Meanwhile, job vacancies in London's financial industry fell 52 percent in December, the most in three years, according to the recruitment firm Morgan McKinley.
France and the Netherlands have already raked in some of the spoils of Brexit, with the EU's banking authority to move to Paris and the bloc's medicines regulator to relocate to Amsterdam by the time the U.K. departs from the EU.
In France, demand for office space was also boosted by the confidence that President Emmanuel Macron instilled in companies, Tonckens said, while Europe overall is benefiting from a growing economy and rising consumer confidence.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jerrold Colten at jcolten@bloomberg.net, James Kraus
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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