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Take-up by technology and telecoms (T&T) companies has exceeded that of banking and finance companies across Europe for the first time ever, according to new research by CBRE.

Data from the first half of 2012 shows that take-up by T&T companies totalled 520,000 m² across key European cities, with banking and finance companies accounting for 420,000 m².

Dublin and now London are established as Western Europe's tech hubs, with Berlin, Munich and Hamburg seeing increased take-up by T&T companies. In Eastern Europe, a handful of markets are emerging as popular destinations for companies in the sector, including Warsaw and Moscow, where a spike in T&T leasing activity has been evident over the past 18 months.

The Europe-wide trend of tech companies replacing banking and finance as the key driver of leasing activity is most evident in London. Over the first half of 2012, T&T companies accounted for 22% of take-up across all London submarkets, compared to 10% in 2011 and an average of 5% between 2007 and 2010.

T&T companies accounted for a quarter of all take-up in Dublin over the period, the highest proportion of any European market. A number of high-profile tech companies have taken space there this year, including BskyB, Dell and LinkedIn, which follow the investment by Google in the city in 2011.

The establishment of Dublin as a tech hub is largely attributed to the relatively low corporation tax rate in Ireland (12.5%) and the availability of a young, skilled and English-speaking workforce.

Berlin, Munich and Hamburg are emerging as popular destinations, with Berlin attracting Amazon, Groupon and Rocket Internet in the past 18 months, and so far this year T&T companies have accounted for 12% of take-up.

The trend is not confined to Western Europe, with a number of cities in Eastern Europe reporting an increase in take-up by T&T companies. Two of the largest transactions across Europe in 2011 involved T&T occupiers in Moscow, with Mail.RU taking 29,900 m2, and Kapersky Lab taking 29,800 m².