In 2018, growth is foreseen as new demands are expected from players entering the market, as well as from existing ones that will expand or envisage relocation.
Fourth quarter last year added more than 85,000 square meters to the local market, balancing the figures for the two semesters (more than 150,000 square meters / semester). Calea Floreasca / Barbu Vacarescu maintains its leading position as regards the areas with the most market demand (16%) and is closely followed by the CBD, the center-west, the Presei Libere Square and Dimitrie Pompeiu.
"In 2018 we are expecting an increase in demand over 2017, but we are not talking, for example, of doubling the number of transactions. We estimate more and more large transactions of more than 20,000 square meters, which will bring Romania closer to the figures of the neighbouring markets, Hungary, the Czech Republic and later even Warsaw in a few years", said Horaţiu Florescu, Chairman & CEO Knight Frank Romania.
Meanwhile, the Eurozone economy has exceeded expectations in 2017, and the IMF forecasts a 2.1% increase in GDP, the highest level since the last decade. Even if a slowdown in Eurozone economic growth is expected, the consensus is that it will remain close to 2%.
In Romania, Bucharest remains the main engine of the economy and the preferred destination for investment in the context of national economic growth, estimated at 20.4% at 4.4%.
The provisional figures for 2017 suggest that the volume of European commercial property investments will exceed € 216 billion by 2016, but will remain below the 2015 market peak when more than € 250 billion has been invested. In 2018, the report estimates volumes similar to those of last year.
A growing trend in Europe is the opening of co-working spaces, flexible offices and workplace cooperation, and technology, the growing number of self-employed and the increasingly sophisticated demands of employees redefine the traditional workplace. Increasing appetite for flexible offices is rapidly spreading to European markets, most notably London, Berlin and Paris. (source: zf.ro)
