The research made by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Romania (RICS) underlines that compared to previous years there are no major changes regarding tenants’ activity, a growth of the outsourcing companies requests being registered, especially for large areas in B Category office buildings.
At the same time, the companies in the pharmaceutical field have rented fewer spaces than last year, which reflects the decreasing trend of this sector. In secondary cities, a growth of the request of IT&C and BPO companies was observed, Mediafax informs.
The largest rentals, representing new contracts on the market, were this year those of the American company Electronic Arts (11,700 sq. m in AFI Park 2), Honeywell (6,000 sq. m in Upground II), Ernst &Young (4,500 sq. m in Tower Center), Eximbank and Bitdefender (each with 3,800 sq. m).
Regarding the offer, this year the developers have completed projects totalizing 150,000 sq. m, the most important investment being the office area in Floreasca City Center, developed by Raiffeisen Evolution (41,000 sq. m).
The novelty this year is represented by the emergence of the first office spaces obtained through reconversion of existing projects, such as the commercial centre City Mall, to be reconverted to 17,000 sq. m office spaces and the hotel area of Metropolis complex, reconverted to 5,300 sq. m office spaces.
The office segment is considered by the investment funds active in Romania as one of the safest and most stable on the local real estate market. that is why there is no surprise that the biggest real estate transaction this year was represented by an office building (Lakeview building was bought by the South-African fund NEPI for EUR 61.7 million from the American company AIG/Lincoln and from the businessman Dinu Patriciu).
However this was the only office transaction this year, the activity being limited by the low offer of good assets available for sale.
RICS is recognized as the world major organization of professional certification in the fields of property, real estate, construction, as well as of environment related aspects. (source: wall-street.ro)
