More companies decided to expand their business in Romania or to relocate part of their business from Western Europe to Romania, which led to some important moves regarding the occupied office spaces, exceeding our expectations from the beginning of the year, has declared for Wall-Street.ro, Marius Scuta, the head of the office department within Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).
The office department of JLL has brokered the biggest three transactions on the market in 2013.
“The company’s activity evolved well in 2013, but we expect a better evolution next year, as the market shows constant signs of recovery, on the background of a growing economy. 2013 was an exceptional year for the office department of Jones Lang LaSalle, which has signed the three biggest transactions on the market segment: Electronic Arts Inc., EA (11,700 sq. m in AFI Park II), Honeywell (11,124 sq. m in UpGround – the extension of the existing contract plus expansion) and Deutsche Bank (7,250 sq. m in UpGrond)”, said Gijs Klomp, general manager of JLL.
Main trends of 2013 for the office market were the IT companies’ expansion, not only in Bucharest but also in other cities in the country. This uptrend will maintain in 2014 too, considering the projects ongoing, in Scuta’s opinion.
“2014 announces to be an interesting year for the office market, considering the increasing interest of the IT and BPO companies in opening new centres in Romania, with the economic and political situation in Romania being uncertain. At the same time, a few important office projects will be delivered, other being scheduled to start in “virgin” areas for the office spaces, but with potential considering the location and the public transportation proximity”, has added the head of the office department within JLL.
One of these “virgin” zones is Bucurestii Noi, where Benevo announced for instance its plans for an office tower.
Considering this uptrend, one of the main challenges of 2014 could be the absence of the large office spaces available for IT companies and call centres.
“Certainly, at this moment there are available spaces, but not all those availabilities are in attractive areas for such companies and not all of them offer flexibility in renting in stages of the office spaces. Another challenge could be the political instability in Romania, as well as the fact that 2014 will be an election year, which will redirect certain investments to the political system”, Marius Scuta considers. (source: wall-street.ro)
