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Tag: bucharest office market

  • Office take-up jumps in 2019 and reaches the maximum level of the last 9 years

    Office take-up jumps in 2019 and reaches the maximum level of the last 9 years

    Expoziției Area attracted almost 15% of the total demand for office spaces registered last year in Bucharest, thus entering the top 5 areas preferred by companies to locate their offices, at a very short distance from Center-West, the most dynamic area in the last 3-4 years.

    The companies rented last year in Bucharest almost 390,000 square meters of office space, the highest level in the last 9 years. Compared to 2018, the total demand in Bucharest increased by 16%.

    It should also be mentioned that the net demand – new contracts and extensions of the existing areas, increased more than twice, compared to 2018, to 212,000 square meters and represented more than half of the total rented volume.

    The largest office areas in Bucharest were rented in CBD (17.4% of total demand), in Center (15.1%), Center – West (14.9%), Expozitie North (14.6%) and Floreasca – Barbu Văcărescu (11.4%).

    JLL remained the leader of the national office market in 2019, with a market share of over 20.4% of the total transactions carried out through the real estate consultants.

    Sub-market Gross take-up în 2019 (sqm) % of the total
    CBD 67,615 17.4
    Center 58,634 15.1
    Center–West 58,031 14.9
    North Expozitiei 56,840 14.6
    Floreasca – Barbu Vacarescu 44,406 11.4
    Center – South 27,540 7.1
    Dimitrie Pompeiu 25,880 6.7
    West 24,488 6.3
    Pipera Nord 17,619 4.5
    Baneasa – Otopeni 2,700 0.7
    East 2,509 0.6
    Center – North 2,245 0.6
    Total 388,507 100

    Vacancy rate reached 8%

    The vacancy rate in the modern office buildings in Bucharest at the end of 2019 reached about 8%, slightly lower than the previous quarter (8.64%), amid the increase in demand in the fourth quarter (107,000 square meters, of which over 80% net demand), and the delivery of a single new building.

    In the sub-markets, still the highest unemployment rate in 2019 was in Pipera – North, respectively 40%, followed by the East, with 16% and Baneasa – Otopeni, with just over 14%.

    At the opposite end, the lowest vacancy rate in 2019 was recorded in the Center (1.1%), West (2.1%) and Floreasca – Barbu Văcărescu (2.5%).

    10 office projects were completed in 2019

    In 2019, 10 office projects totalling almost 280,000 square meters were completed in Bucharest, double compared to 2018 (141,000 square meters).

    Most deliveries took place in Center-West (almost 100,000 square meters, respectively 35% of the total area delivered), followed by Floreasca – Barbu Vacarescu over 53,000 square meters, respectively about 19% of deliveries) and West (47,000 square meters), 17% of deliveries).

    Project Sub-market Developer Area (sqm)
    Renault Bucharest Connected West Globalworth&Elgan Group 47,000
    The Mark CBD S Immo 25,500
    The Bridge phase 2 Center – West Forte Partners 21,271
    Business Garden Bucharest Center – West Vastint 41,000
    Oregon Park cladirea C Floreasca-Barbu Vacarescu Portland Trust 25,000
    Timpuri Noi Square 3 Center Vastint20,000
    Expo Business Park Expozitiei Portland Trust 38,000
    The Light Center – West River Development 21,600
    Sema Office Berlin Center – West River Development 14,900
    Equilibrium phase 1 Floreasca -Barbu Vacarescu Skanska 20,600
    Total     275.000

    18% increase in demand

    At the national level, about 470,000 square meters of office space were rented, of which the net demand, respectively new contracts and extensions of the already existing areas, represented the largest share. Total demand increased in 2019 by 18% compared to 2018 when a level of 400,000 square meters was recorded.

    The average value of transactions with office spaces nationwide was 1,560 square meters.

    Net demand in 2019 was 280,000 square meters, growing almost 3 times compared to 2018.

    At national level, Bucharest attracted almost 83% of the total demand for office space, followed by Cluj-Napoca (6.5%), Timisoara (4.4%) and Iași (3.2%).

    By activity areas, by far the largest share of the demand for office space at the national level came from the IT&C sector, covering almost 40% of the rented space in 2019. The second place was the computer & high-tech sector, with 15.6%, followed by banking insurance & financing, with 8.4% and retail & consumer goods, with 7.4%.

    In comparison, in 2018 the highest weights in the total demand for office spaces were held by the IT&C sector, with over 35%, the professional services sector, with about 10%, banking, insurance & financing, with over 7% and computers & high-tech, with almost 6%.

    City Gross take-up (sqm) % of the total
    Bucharest 388,507 82.8
    Cluj-Napoca 30.552 6.5
    Timisoara 20,468 4.4
    Iasi 15,000 3.2
    Brasov 7,280 1.6
    Craiova 4,670 1.0
    Ploiesti 3,000 0.6
    Total 469,477 100
  • One United Properties gets building permit for One Cotroceni Park

    One United Properties gets building permit for One Cotroceni Park

    One United Properties obtained the building permit for the first phase of One Cotroceni Park, an 80,000 sqm Gross Lettable Area (GLA) business park in central Bucharest.


    “We are marking the start of the largest urban regeneration project in the central area of Bucharest, on a 5.8 hectare plot,” says Mihai Păduroiu, CEO | Office Division, One United Properties, adding: “The size of the lot allows us to build a concept that will redefine the classic real estate developments, outlining on the map of Bucharest a new point of interest.”

    The first stage of this large-scale project is represented by a business park developed under the concept of “Flex Well Tech”: “Flexible office spaces, which facilitate access to green areas and offer a variety of services regarding the health and well-being of employees, built according to the latest technological standards”, explains Mihai Păduroiu the latest office concept development on the Bucharest market.

    One Cotroceni Park is a unique project on the capital’s office market, with benefits such as: location within the city’s central ring and direct access to the subway, flexible surfaces from 3,400 sqm to 8,000 sqm, elevated gardens, green spaces, areas for outdoor sports activities and a panoramic view of the neighborhoods – Cotroceni Palace, Botanical Garden or Parliament Palace.

    At the same time, One Cotroceni Park gives a new dimension to the concept “Work -Live – Shop”, offering future employees and residents, who will live within the project, a retail area with an area of ​​15,000 sqm, comparable to that of a medium-sized shopping center.
    The residential component of the One Cotroceni Park mixed-use project provides approximately 800 apartments, which will be developed in several phases starting from 2020.
    For a high level of comfort of the employees of the future tenants, One Cotroceni Park will be directly connected to the future subway station Academia Militara through an underground passage.

    The underground level, dedicated to parking, will benefit from 10 access exits for efficient traffic within the complex. Keeping the developer’s “eco” vision, One Cotroceni Park will be LEED (targeting LEED PLATINUM level) and WELL certified, with an emphasis on improving employees’ health and well-being through the quality of the work environment.

    With the three major projects underway: One Tower, part of the One Floreasca City complex, the office tower of One Verdi Park complex and One Cotroceni Park, One United Properties is the developer with the largest office space under construction on the Romanian market.

  • Middle Eastern investor enters Romanian real estate market

    Corporate Finance House Group, a Middle Eastern investor, has acquired the holding structure owning Day Tower office building in Bucharest, developed by Dimitris Mourkakos of Day Group and completed end of 2018.

    The Investor was advised by Savills on its first investment in the country; the developer was assisted by Crosspoint Real Estate.

    Day Tower is a brand new, grade A office building, close to the historic centre of the city, in the immediate vicinity of the National Library of Romania and Bucharest City Courthouse, and close to the Palace of Parliament Building, the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon. The building hosts under a long-term agreement the country headquarters of Enel, a global leader in the energy sector.

    The building has been certified with a BREEAM rating of “Excellent”.

    Chris Gillum, Head of Offices, Savills Regional Investment Advisory EMEA, says: “This is our client’s first investment in Bucharest, predicted to be one of the top ten fastest growing European cities over the next five years. This follows an increasing trend we have witnessed in the market, of international capital targeting the yield premiums available in the CEE markets. Day Tower is a high-quality asset in the central area of the city which is well let and will undoubtedly benefit as the district continues to develop.”

  • Office deliveries in Bucharest could break 300,000 sqm

    In the third quarter of 2019, 66,000 sqm of new modern office buildings came online in the Bucharest office market and there are big chances to break the 300,000 sqm threshold, according to real estate consultancy company Colliers International.

    The higher vacancy and infrastructure discrepancies will likely support a more thorough segmentation of the market, with the gap between well-located buildings and those at the opposite spectrum likely to increase over the medium term.

    The third quarter saw a gross demand at 74,800 sqm in Bucharest, up by c.18% in the January-September period (to around 263,000 sqm). However, the net take-up is still down some 20% in the first three quarters of 2019, to 83,600 sqm, with 35,000 sqm in Q3 2019.

    Over 100,000 sqm of leasing transactions in the first 9 months of 2019 were generated by relocations from competitive stock, on track for an all-time high this year. Around two thirds of these deals are pre-leases, meaning that their impact is yet to be felt on the vacancy rate, which remains in a market neutral-area of c.10%.

    Some 66,000 sqm in new modern office buildings came online in the third quarter, coming from 3 projects – Expo Business Park in the Expozitiei area (c.38,400 sqm), The Light in Center West submarket (c.21,700 sqm) and Eminescu Office near Romana Square (c.6,300 sqm), thus taking the grand total for deliveries this year to over 250,000 sqm in the first three quarters of the year.

    There are big chances to break the 300,000 sqm threshold in terms of deliveries, but as usual, there is always the danger that one or more may get delayed into 2020

    „Bucharest is gradually turning into a tenant market overall (a trend likely to become more visible in 2020), which may lead to pressures on the aggregate headline rate, though in isolated cases, some submarkets or even highly sought-after buildings within some submarkets may still reward landlords with a stronger position in negotiations”, Sebastian Dragomir, Director Office Advisory at Colliers, said.

    The IT&C segment was by far the star of the show yet gain, generating close to 58% of the total market demand (and the bulk of the net take-up as well), followed at a great distance by the financial and professional services segments, both with a market share of around 11%.

    In terms of locations, take-up focused both on active submarkets in terms of new deliveries and also established markets amid renewals, with Center West accounting for almost 20% of gross take-up in the first three quarters of the year, followed by 5 other submarkets with a share of between 10 and 14% of total demand.

    Overall, high-frequency indicators suggest that the very near-term outlook remains largely good for the Bucharest office market, with demand still likely in line with the trend seen this economic cycle, though external uncertainties cloud the longer-term outlook.

  • One United Properties has ongoing office projects of 150.000 sqm

    One United Properties, a company with Romanian capital, has ongoing office projects of 150,000 sqm for the following three years, totaling investments of 220 million EUR.

    The strategy is to develop communities in projects with mixed functions, which concentrate facilities and benefits in a single concept: premium and luxury apartments, class A offices, retail spaces serving office and residential components, green spaces and facilities for sports and leisure.

    „We see an upward trend for revitalizing the former industrial platforms of Bucharest, in projects that combine the historical and cultural heritage of the respective places with the contemporary architecture and modern construction technologies,” said Victor Capitanu, Co-Founder One United Properties.

    Construction works at One Tower, part of One Floreasca City complex, are on schedule, the tower reached the GF + 12 level, following to be delivered Q4 2020. The proximity of Floreasca Park, the panoramic view over the lake and the V4 LEED Platinum pre-certification are just a few of the attraction elements of the project.

    At One Cotroceni Park, the developer has begun demolition works and is awaiting the construction authorization for a business park with an area of 80,000 sqm, an innovative concept for companies looking for a solution to make the building more efficient.

    „The concept from One Cotroceni Park offers great flexibility, from 3,400 sqm up to 8,000 sqm per floor. From our estimates, a company with three headquarters in different areas of Bucharest, totaling 15,000 sqm makes annual savings of 250,000 EUR, by moving this space to One Cotroceni Park”, said Ionut Dumitrescu, Co-Founder One Office, the office division.

    One Cotroceni Park is unique on the Bucharest office market, with benefits such as: location within the central ring of the city and direct access to the subway, generous areas per floor, rooftop gardens, retail area with the dimension of a mall, green spaces, areas for outdoor sports activities and a panoramic view of the neighborhoods – Cotroceni Palace, Botanical Garden or Parliament Palace. Delivery term is Q4 2021.

    The third project, One Verdi Park, provides for the construction of two towers, an office and a residential one, in a consecrated area, on Barbu Văcărescu boulevard. The two towers will be connected by a retail space on the ground floor. For this project, the developer starts construction works this fall, the delivery being estimated for Q1 2022.

    All projects will be built in compliance with LEED requirements for green buildings, the developer assuming the delivery of assemblies that will change the face of Bucharest, revitalizing old, abandoned areas.

  • Colliers International advised on the sale of Liberty Technology Park

    Colliers International advised on the sale of Liberty Technology Park office complex, owned by Fribourg Development in Cluj-Napoca, one of Romania’s most important regional real estate hubs. Colliers International also acted as advisor in obtaining financing for the acquisition, where the buyer was White Star Real Estate and its joint venture partner, the endowment fund of a top private university in the USA.  

    The partnership between a real estate player and an educational institution is common practice in other Western countries, but the acquisition of the offices in Cluj represents a unique transaction for the Romanian market, as it brings a change in the pattern of present investors, laying out a pioneering investment case.

    Liberty represents 18,000 square metres of former industrial buildings, redeveloped over the last six years by Fribourg into a modern, industrial feel office park. The technology park comprises five Class A office buildings, BREEAM certified with innovative, eco-friendly and energy efficient technologies, with an additional 3 hectares of land for further development.

    Located in the northern part of the city, Liberty Technology Park enjoys the presence of internationally renowned IT&C and R&D tenants, such as Siemens, IBM, Arvato and Altran. In addition, the Spherik Accelerator was launched here, which strives to improve the local start-up community and help it grow faster internationally.

    About White Star Real Estate

    The buyer, White Star Real Estate, is a regional real estate developer and asset and property manager with offices across the CEE in Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Bucharest and Moscow.

    The company has built over 50 projects since 1997, including landmark office buildings, warehouses, logistics parks and other industrial projects, retail, mixed-use concepts and residential developments, and currently manages over 2.4 million sqm of commercial properties for their clients.

    White Star has been present in Romania since 2006, its most prominent project being Lakeview, a 25,000 sqm class A office building.

    Second deal for Colliers International in Cluj

    The sale of Liberty Technology Park marks Colliers International’s second office investment deal in Cluj-Napoca. The company also advised on the sale of Maestro Business Center office building last year, making Colliers International the first international agency to advise an office transaction in a regional city of Romania.

    The acquisition was made by First Property Group, a UK investment fund, and it also changed the investment scene in a city then dominated by local capital.

  • 2019 will be a record year for the Bucharest office market

    The Bucharest office market could have a record year in terms of deliveries in 2019, provided that all the announced projects are finalized on time, a scenario in which modern office spaces with a total area of ​​about 377,000 square meters will have been delivered in the capital city, according to data from the Cushman & Wakefield Echinox real estate consultancy company.

    In the first half of the year, 128,000 square meters have been delivered, consisting of the Renault Bucharest Connected, The Mark, Oregon Park C, The Bridge II, Office 1 and Mihai Eminescu Offices projects. In the second half of 2019 the volume of deliveries could be double, the most important projects being Business Garden (41,000 sq. m), Ana Tower (41,000 sq. m), Expo Business Park (38,000 sq. m), Globalworth Campus III (35,000 sq. m), The Light I (23,000 sq. m), Timpuri Noi Square 1b (20,000 sq. m) and Equilibrium I (19,000 sq. m), along with a number of other smaller buildings.

    Historically, 2009 has been the best year for the local office market in terms of deliveries, when developers finalized new buildings with an area of ​​about 322,000 square meters, which came after another very good year (2008), with over 300,000 square meters delivered in total. The most important projects delivered in 2009 were BOC, Global City Business Park, Floreasca Business Park and Cubic Center, at a time when developers were especially active in the Pipera area, while the development of the Floreasca – Barbu Văcărescu office hub was just commencing.

    Mădălina Cojocaru, Partner, Office Agency Cushman & Wakefield Echinox: “The 2019 deliveries come after two years with a consistent demand, but with a lower level of deliveries: projects with a leasable area of ​​138,000 and 145,000 square meters were completed in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The new projects have been successful in terms of early securing important anchor tenants: financial groups such as ING, Erste – BCR, Allianz or the PricewaterhouseCoopers professional services firm, in an extremely dynamic market, where demand is at a record level. Taking into account the buildings about to be delivered, we can affirm that the office stock in Bucharest reached the 3 million square meters threshold, out of which 1 million square meters have been built between 2014 and 2019.”

    In H1 2019, transactions totaling 196,000 square meters of office spaces have been closed, the largest ones involving Ericsson (16,000 sq. m at West Gate), eMag (15,000 sq. m at Swan Office Park), ING Tech (13,000 sq. m at Dacia One) and Allianz (9,000 sq. m at Globalworth Campus).

    There has also been a slight increase of the headline rents for the office spaces located in the CBD area, where the premium buildings are rented at a level between 17.5 and 19 euro / sq. m / month, while in the Central – North area they reach values between 15.5 – 17 euro / sq. m / month.

  • World agro-industrial group buys Hagi Ghita Office Building

    A major player in the food products industry has recently acquired Hagi Ghita Office building, located in Bucharest’s Central Business District, owned by LSG Group. Crosspoint Real Estate was the sole advisor in the 2.8 million Euro transaction.

    Hagi Ghita Office Building is located on 89-91 Hagi Ghita street, very close to Piata Victoriei, and provides 1,500 sqm built office space spread on 5 above ground floors with a typical floor area between 200-300 sqm.

    The building was delivered in 2013, owner-occupied, and it was initially built by LSG Group, specialized in integrated building technologies as their HQ and flagship facility to showcase their capabilities in terms of engineering and infrastructure.

    Thanks to other energy-saving technologies – such as solar panels for hot water production, rotary heat recovery to the ventilation system, HVAC and lighting coordinated a unique building management system without the presence of switches and thermostats in each room, the building is considered the first truly “smart” building in Romania.

  • Developers will build around 1.2 million square feet of spaces in 2019

    In 2019 it is expected to be delivered about 600,000 square meters of logistics and industrial spaces, over 400,000 square meters of office spaces and 200,000 square meters of retail spaces.

    € 1.3 billion real estate properties, delivered last year in Romania.

    What kind of apartments are buyers looking for in 2019?

    WDP will invest 40 million euros in a new hall for Pirelli Slatina.

    Renault Bucharest Connected building, completed in just 561 days.

  • Office vacancy rate in Bucharest at the lowest rate in history

    The average office vacancy rate in Bucharest declined last year to a historic low of about 6.6%, compared with 9.2% by the end of 2017.

    This week buzz!

    CTP is the first company on the local market to reach the historical landmark of 1 million square meters built-up area, divided into 15 parks located near Bucharest and nine other Romanian cities.

    Rieker will close it’s factory in Lugoj, Timis county.

    OMV Petrom offers 10 million euros for the construction of the first Pediatric Oncology and Radiotherapy Hospital in Romania.

    AFI Europe signed a non-binding letter of intent with Plaza Centers to acquire the majority stake in the Casa Radio project, located in downtown Bucharest. The total transaction costs will reach 60 million euros.

    CFR launched the auction of construction works for the connection of Bucharest Otopeni International Airport Terminal to the national railway system.

    Transactions with office buildings reached, in 2018, a record level for the last decade, with 20 real estate projects, with a cumulative lease area of ​​220,000 square meters and a value of more than 500 million euros, purchased in Bucharest, according to Romania Investment Marketbeat report, launched by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.