„The area Floreasca - Barbu Văcărescu attracted the investor’s attention, more than 120,000 sq. m of offices being scheduled for completion in 2016, a third of this year’s deliveries. The largest projects include Bucharest One (Globalworth), Oregon Park (Portland), Green Court Building C (Skanska) and Gara Herăstrău (Globalworth)“, says Andrei Drosu, research & consultancy manager within JLL.
ZF has identified four office poles in the market, and the data from JLL shows that nearly 220,000 sq. m of offices will be delivered this year in the four zones, a working area for 24,000 new potential employees.
The total office stock in Bucharest has increased to 2.3 million sq. m in 2015, as nearly 65,000 square metres were delivered last year. „IF the developers are keeping their plans, we expect in 2016 nearly 360,000 sq. m to be delivered“, Andrei Drosu said.
The area Floreasca-Barbu Văcărescu has become in the latest years the most important office pole in Bucharest, with a stock reaching 315,000 sq. m in the end of last year, to be extended with a third this year, based on the plans announced by the developers. The subway and the infrastructure in the area are though not adapted to the tens of thousands of employees which are already squeezing each morning to get out of the Aurel Vlaicu station.
„The crowd on Barbu Văcărescu doesn’t worry, as Bucharest is overall a busy city and it’s not worse than in other areas. We’ll see what will happen with the infrastructure in the future. There were improvements done in the area Gara Herăstrău. There are busier and less busy zones, and these problems will exist in the future too, as in any other metropolis“, said Aurelia Luca, managing director of Skanska Property Romania, which developed and sold two projects within Green Court and is currently preparing the third one. „The companies wish to be in a certain area, as this area brings a plus to their business. For some companies, the business is here, in Barbu Văcărescu.
For instance, many companies wish for their headquarters to be here, while the western zone is wanted for the companies looking for back office“, Aurelia Luca said.
On Timişoara Blvd in western Bucharest there are scheduled for completion nearly 80,000 sq. m this year, including Metropol project, developed by Anchor Grup, and AFI Park 4&5, developed by AFI Europe. ÎMoreover, 10,000 sq. m from Plaza Romania mall are currently under reconversion works to offices. According to ZF calculations, nearly a fifth of the total area of the mall will become office spaces.
„For the western zone, the appearance of infrastructure problems will depend a lot on the area development and of the city hall’s involvement. However, the density of office buildings in the north is more compact compared to the project in the west, where there is more space“, believes Aurelia Luca. Skanska bought also a land in the western area, part of the former Pumac platform, situated right near the metro station Politehnică, where offices will be developed.
A new office pole is taking shape in the area Orhideea- Basarab Bridge, where there are currently only 56,000 sq. m of offices, with no project delivered last year. „A single building is announced to be delivered in 2016 – the first building of the third phase of Sema Park (14,000 sq.m), but there are more projects in different stages of development. Therefore, in 2017-2018, the stock could triple“, added Andrei Drosu , JLL.
As average rent, the first position is held by the Victoriei Square area, where the price is between EUR 16 and EUR 18.5/sq. m. In Floreasca-Barbu Văcărescu, the rent is EUR 14.5-EUR 16/sq. m/month and for Timişoara Blvd and Orhideea zone the values are similar EUR 14-15/sq.m/month.
The stock remained constant in the latest years in the Victoriei Square area, due to lack of available plots able to support large projects. In 2016, in this area, two office building will be delivered – The Landmark, developed by Proiect Bucureşti, and Aviatorilor 8, developed by NEPI.
Andrei Drosu considers that the delivery of new office buildings in the area Orhideea-Basarab will not influence very much the average rent for Bucharest, of EUR 18/sq. m/month, as this being related to the prime buildings, the most performing ones. The value for Bucharest is one of the lowest in CEE.
The delivery of new projects in 2016 will also bring new working places, most of them in Floreasca area, where, taking into consideration 10 sq. m per employee, there will be 12,000 employees. In the four areas identified by ZF nearly 24,000 employees could relocate this year, while the total estimated stock in Bucharest could generate 36,000 working places, newly created or relocations. (Source: zf.ro)
