According to Germany’s economy minister, Brigitte Zypries, Europe will be the big winner of Brexit, as international companies with headquarters in the UK move to the continent.

In the finance sector alone, reports show London could lose as many as 10,000 banking jobs and 20,000 roles in financial services as clients move 1.8 trillion euros of assets out of the UK before the divorce takes effect in March 2019. Many big banks have been looking at cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin and Frankfurt, which is already home to the European Central bank and The Frankfurt stock exchange. 

This is playing well for Germany’s economic hub as it tries to attract new business. Standard Charter was one of the first big banks to announce they were moving their EU operations to Frankfurt.

Like most lenders, they fear that once the UK’s divorce from the European Union is complete, banks will lose their right to operate across EU markets.

The CEO of Standard Charter in Germany, Heinz Hilger, told CGTN that they had to react to Brexit because they rely on an EU Bank Passport held by their parent company in London for all their EU activities. That would be a fantastic concept, Hilger says, as long as the parent company stays in the EU.

Since their Frankfurt office was their largest operation outside London in Europe, they decided that it was best placed to serve as their new EU hub. Although Hilger notes that they are still negotiating the scale and scope of this new office with German regulators.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have also chosen Frankfurt as their new European base, while Goldman Sachs have leased 10,000 square meters of office space in the heart of Frankfurt’s business district to accommodate for as many as 1,000 staff, a significant increase from the 200 people it currently employs there.

According to Frankfurt Economic Development, which works with the city to pull in new businesses, around a million square meters of office space is currently available and there are plans to build 20 new skyscrapers over the next 10-15 years, tripling the current level of demand.

All this is pushing a surge in infrastructure and development that has locals of Frankfurt Am Main now calling their skyline "Mainhattan".

Kai Wolfram, managing partner of Engel & Völkers Investment Consulting, a large commercial and residential real estate brokerage network in the country, says not only are buildings going up,the prices are moving in the same direction.

"When companies move to Frankfurt, that definitely has an effect on the residential property market as well in rent increases and demand itself. Last year Frankfurt grew about 15,000 inhabitants, and experts see thousands of jobs that will be moved to Frankfurt. That has a big effect. Not just on jobs, but families and infrastructure around that."

While this might be welcomed news to property owners who claim housing prices in some areas have almost doubled in the last ten years, there is growing concern that the city’s middle class will be left struggling to find affordable flats as thousands descend on the city over the next few years.