At the moment, the stock of modern office spaces in Cluj-Napoca has a total area of 260,317 sqm, but eight office buildings are in various stages of approval or construction, including Via Office Building, the Iulius Group project, Grand Park City, two buildings in the Bonjour Office Building project and several buildings in the Liberty Techology Park project. The most advanced construction is Via Office Building, which is expected to be ready by the end of this year and will bring to market an area of 12,191 sqm class A office space.
“In recent years, several ambitious mixed-use private projects have been proposed, which expand the real estate market in Cluj-Napoca and will be developed on former industrial platforms, only these having large plots of land available. The city is attractive for investors working in both the commercial sector - offices and retail, and in the residential sector. Office buildings are a good option for investment, because they ensure a high yield of 7.75-8%, and the demand for offices is constant, due to the fact that this city is considered the Silicon Valley of Romania, the most important regional hub of IT&C and support companies ", says Nicolae Ciobanu, Managing Partner-Head of Advisory of Fortim Trusted Advisors, member of the BNP Paribas Real Estate Alliance.
The stock of modern office spaces in Cluj-Napoca started to develop in 2007, similar to Bucharest, but at a different pace, much lower in Cluj-Napoca, until 2013.
In 2008, for example, 408,375 sq m of modern offices were delivered in Bucharest, while 12,000 sq m of modern spaces were delivered in Cluj-Napoca. However, the pace accelerated in the following years in Cluj-Napoca, the largest annual stock being recorded in 2016, when office buildings were put into use that totaled 57,700 square meters of new class A spaces.
The second year in terms of delivery intensity was 2019, when five modern office buildings were put into use, with a total of 41,822 sqm. These include Novis Plaza, Scala Center and Hexagon Offices, which has the largest office space delivered in a new office building in the last three years, 21,725 sqm. The office building has become a benchmark for the business environment in Cluj-Napoca, through the quality of class A spaces and its location, very close to the most important university campus and the Bună Ziua residential neighborhood, the best rated. In the future, the largest volume of deliveries is estimated to take place in three years, in 2025, when buildings could be inaugurated that will total about 75,000 square meters of office space.
The pulse of demand sets the tone for deliveries
In Cluj-Napoca, the vacancy rate of office buildings is 8.9%, lower than in Bucharest and this is because the developers build especially after they have anchor tenants with pre-lease contracts signed.
Most companies that rent offices in Cluj-Napoca come from the IT&C and support fields.
