Overall, cumulating all office areas transactions concluded in Bucharest – including relocation, contract renewal and expansion transactions, the total area of the contracts concluded in the 3rd quarter of 2013 was 90,030 sqm, being the most active quarter since the beginning of the year.
The nine month’ balance of total transactions performed on the Bucharest office market maintains a positive trend. According to the data gathered by the Forum of the most important real estate consultancy companies in Romania, during the first three quarters of 2013 the office transactions concluded in Bucharest covered a total volume of 208,919 sqm, i.e. by approximately 25% more than during the same period of 2012.
New Demand Transactions Grew at an Accelerated Pace
The 3rd quarter of 2013 was characterized by the accelerated dynamics of certain strategic transactions, carefully monitored by the real estate consultants and developers: transactions aimed at the expansion of companies existing on the market, and new companies entering the market. Generically called “New Demand” transactions by the real estate consultants, during the 3rd quarter the total volume of these transactions was 19,599 sqm, by 39% more than the two cumulated previous quarters.
Transactions of this type are important for the real estate market actors, since they indicate the development pace of the companies and, implicitly, of the office market, the need (or opportunity) to build new office buildings being forecast based on this indicator. A healthy office market may be considered to be the one with a progressive and constant increase in the stock of office areas leased by companies which have recently entered the market or growing companies.
“If the total volume of New Demand transactions was 7,963 sqm in the first quarter of 2013, and 6,136 sqm in the second quarter, this volume increased significantly to 19,599 sqm in the third quarter of 2013, being more than double the volume of the first quarter and three times the volume of the second quarter. This is a good sign, since New Demand transactions reduce the stock of unoccupied office areas existing on the market and reflect a positive phenomenon, of increased confidence on behalf of the companies, in the perspectives of their own development or in the local market. The increase in New Demand transactions included both transactions with large areas, and with medium areas, as well as a diversification of the sectors involved, i.e. multinational companies which re-launched their expansion plans, local start-ups, international companies opening, for the first time, an office area in Romania”, declared Alexandru Petrescu, Managing Partner at ESOP Consulting | CORFAC International.
As far as this transaction segment is concerned, Q3 2013 is also better compared to the same period of last year. From this perspective, of New Demand transactions, the 3rd quarter of 2013 exceeded the volume of New Demand transactions from the 3rd quarter of 2012, by 49%.
