With a stock of almost 6 million sqm of industrial and logistic spaces, a vacancy of only 3.9% at the national level and rents amongst the lowest in the region, Romania is in a good position, concluded speakers attending the CEDER conference last week în Bucharest.
Victor Răchită, Head of Industrial & Logistics at CBRE pointed out there are 500,000 sq m of warehouse spaces under construction on the market, and a pipeline of 2.9 million sq m.
“38% of the current stock was delivered before 2013, which means that 2.23 million sq m would need improvements in regards to ESG specifications in the coming years,” Răchită said.
And since e-commerce is growing at a double digit rate, with an estimated value of nearly 7 billion euros for this year, the owners of warehousing units might have a solid reason to hope for another great year.
Rental of industrial and logistics spaces increased in the first quarter by 50% compared with the same period last year, totaling over 300,000 sqm, which could mean the market might witness a new record year in terms of demand.
Retail and ecommerce companies were the most active on the rental market, with 35% of the total leased space, followed by logistics and distribution with 15% and automotive with 10% of the leased area.
A significant change is that, during the first quarter, the demand was no longer concentrated mostly around Bucharest, which traditionally attracted over 50% of the traded volume. The interest shifted instead towards projects in Ploiești, Slatina and Arad.
Ioana Niculeasa, Partner and Head of Real Estate at NNDKP, believes that logistics was the star of the market last year and this sector will continue to grow, as there are lots of companies wanting to boost their supply chains to optimize availability and distribution throughout CEE.
“We’ve had and still have pending lots of transactions in the industrial and logistics sector. It’s about income producing assets, but also empty land available for development, plus negotiations with tenants which are more demanding now,” she said.
