The top of the largest office markets outside Bucharest is headed by Iasi, with a total of 14,603 sq. m, followed by Timisoara (with 11,658 sq. m) and Cluj-Napoca (with 4,200 sq. m).
The order in the top three is periodically changing, being closely related to the new spaces deliveries in the big cities in the respective year. Last year, in the same period, the first place was occupied by Cluj-Napoca, with a total transacted area of 14,990sq.m, while only 4,100 sq. m were transacted in Iasi.
„After the fast development in recent years of the Bucharest office market, we estimate that will follow in the next 3-4 years an accelerated development of the three main universities in the country: Iasi, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, due to the increasing demand for higher education labour and to the fact that the labour market in Bucharest has become quite competitive, so that the IT&C, BPO and Share Services companies, as well as the companies that develop research-development centres to seek solutions to sustain the good results obtained so far in Romania and the increasing appetite for the presence in our country", said Alexandru Petrescu, Managing Partner ESOP Consulting l CORFAC International.
The companies renting A class offices outside Bucharest this year include Xerox (in Iași), Accenture Services (in Iași and Timișoara), Hella (in Timișoara), Amazon (in Iași), Bitdefender (Iași), Unicredit (Iași) and Ness (Timișoara). The office buildings attracting the tenants’ interest were Palas and Unites Business Center 3 in Iași, City Business Center and UPC Open Ville in Timișoara, The Office in Cluj-Napoca.
The number of students in a city, an important indicator for the office market in the following years
The rush for the entry level educated workforce, meaning directly from universities, led to a more and fiercer competition for students’ employment between the outsourcing, BPO and IT&C companies, research-development centres etc. Therefore it is not surprising that the first three cities in top 3 as number of students – Cluj Napoca, Timișoara and Iași are also in the Top 3 largest office transactions outside Bucharest. (source: Esop)
