81% of the traded premises are located in Class A office buildings. The modern office space stock reached 2.91 million square meters, with 144,000 m2 delivered in 2018, up 15% compared to 2017.
The office space segment will continue to grow rapidly in 2019, and 15 new projects will be launched later this year. However, the market feels the lack of several projects, the level of demand being still above the existing supply. At this time, 50% of the total area to be completed in 2019 is already leased, which is a clear indicator of the need to deliver more office space.
In the western part of the capital, most of the rental applications were recorded in 2018, with 36% of total transactions. On the second position were the central and northern areas, both with 17%, followed by Pipera by 14% and the CBD (Piata Victoriei area, Charles de Gaulle Square), an area that is close to the upper limit of the available space for building new projects, 13%. In terms of type of transaction, in 2018 pre-closure contracts had a weight of 35%, renegotiations of 26%, followed by relocation by 20% and new demands or extensions of existing premises by 19%.
In 2019, 15 projects totaling over 304,000 m2 are announced, while the western part of the capital remains the most active area. Thus, 48% of the projects are located in the western part of Bucharest, 24% in the north, 10% in the CBD area, 9% in the central area and 8% in Pipera.
Nowadays, most of the total stock of modern office space is situated in the northern part of the capital and Pipera, and these areas have been considered for many years traditional for the location of office complexes and where it has been massively built. But the current trend is to create new poles, such as Timpuri Noi, located in the center-south part of the capital. The Timpuri Noi Square project, located here, and whose contribution to the development of the area is indisputable, functions as an anchor, attracting more and more new investments and tenants, but also to inspire other developers who have noticed the potential of the area.
An increasing interest is also manifested in the area of the Exhibition Avenue - Press Square, which will continue to expand organically in 2019.
The total of 2.91 million m2 of office space in the capital is divided as follows: 782.206 m2 in the north, 689.391 m2 in Pipera, 489.095 in the central area, 432.089 m2 in the CBD, 412.013 in the west. The smallest area is located in the eastern area, where 57,775 m2 have been built so far and in the south of the capital, which has only 47,780 m2 of office space. But both areas have the ability to grow in the future.
"2018 was a very good year, and according to our analysis, in 2019 the office space market will accelerate its growth. However, the need for new Class A projects remains high, especially in the context of new players entering the market, as is anticipated. The waiting time for finding quality and well-located offices is between 12 and 24 months. In order for this niche to continue to grow and for Romania to reach the level of large markets in the region, I think that developers and consultancy companies must become more and more creative and willing to invest in innovation", explained Mihai Padruiu, CBRE Romania's Head of Advisory & Transaction Services. (source: CBRE)
