Insecurity is this year pushing companies to take a pause regarding decisions to relocate.
For Speedwell, most leases signed recently are still for long-term periods, “but with the option to take up or give back space, so that’s something will probably stay,” said Didier Balcaen, Speedwell’s CEO.
Emma Toma, Head of Office Division at AFI Europe Romania, said during CEDER 2021 it was a struggle to meet the requests of flexibility coming from the tenants with the business model of the developers, which is conditioned by financing from the banks.
“Even before the pandemic we created long-term relationships with our tenants. Now we are more able to provide flexibility because we have a large portfolio. Also for the tenants it’s important to clarify what it’s a fake need, a speculative one or a real need. During this period everybody came up with requests of reducing the rent, but the most important direction the developer should follow is to invest into the quality of the working environment. You may take lease reductions on a short term, but this is not the way to solve the problem,” she said.
Another possibility is, according to Andreea Cotiga, Senior Leasing Manager of Immofinanz, “to ask landlords for mapping their portfolios and assessing the possibilities of having multiple satellite locations in different areas of the city or in different cities in order to be able to offer employees more flexibility by decreasing the commute time, but still be able to offer the same quality of services, infrastructure and facilities.”
Cotiga agreed it is possible that this year we will no longer see large consolidation processes.
