There is still a strong demand for prime industrial space in Romania, with 620,000 sq m under construction, most of it in Bucharest. A great deal of the demand last year came from retailers such as Carrefour, Auchan, Metro and LPP and nearly half of the total leasable area was pre-leased.
In terms of new supply, 50% of the Romanian prime industrial market is in the hands of a few players like CTP, WDP, P3 and Logicor. “If you include what they will deliver by the end of this year, it will make up to 60% of the total market,” RazvanIorgu, Managing Director CBRE Romania said during CEDER 2019 in Bucharest.
However, the market is diversifying as there are currently other international and local players “who are becoming more active as they want a piece of the pie,” Iorgu added. One of them is Element Industrial, a local developer focused on smaller surfaces in multiple locations.
Muler Onofrei, Managing Partner at Element Industrial, believes the trend of the “last mile or in-city logistics” is to be followed. “We’re getting away from the big parks and clusters, which tend to maximize their advantages. Instead, we’re trying to be closer to the workforce and the cities. Our strategy is identifying niches in the market and be present in multiple locations with smaller surfaces. This is one of the trends that will correspond also to the slow infrastructure development in Romania. There is fragmentation of the market and we’re trying to take advantage of that,” Onofrei told the CEDER audience.
