Starting 2015 modern office stock in Bucharest increased by 2.5 percent between January and June, bringing the city’s stock of class A and B office space to more than 2.21 million sqm. The latest report by DTZ Echinox states that three office buildings were delivered in the first half of the year, adding a total GLA of 54,000 sqm. They were City Offices, Auchan Tricodava and Green Court – building B. Another 100,000 sqm of space is expected by the end of the year, half of which is in Bucharest One, a project in the Central North submarket.
Total leasing activity in Bucharest offices during H1 2015 was 135,000 sqm, according to DTZ, with net take-up representing than 80 percent of that figure (112,000 sqm). Compared to the same period last year, net take-up rose 3.5 percent. Pre-lease activity grew 50 percent compared to H1 2014 to 59,000 sqm (52 percent of the net take-up figure). Moreover, pre-lease transactions supplied the largest deals, such as Genpact (22,000 sqm), Oracle (20,000 sqm), Carrefour (7,000 sqm) and NNDKP (6,000 sqm). Another 23,000 sqm were the subject of renegotiation and renewal transactions, 40 percent of which was located in the Pipera area. Vacancy rose slightly for the first three months of the year, but fell again by the end of June to 13.5 percent with 300,000 sqm of unoccupied space. Pipera North suffers from 26 percent vacancy, leading all other areas of the city.
DTZ Echinox predicts vacancy could fall to 12 percent by the end of December. In the next 18 months, it writes, 345,000 sqm of office space will be completed in Bucharest.
