Quarter III: the most active on the Office Market in 2013

Overall, cumulating all the transactions with office space in Bucharest – and the relocation, the renewal of contracts, and extension, in the third quarter of 2013, deals were made with a total area of 90,030 sqm, being the most active quarter of at the beginning of the year.

And at nine months, the balance of total transactions in the Bucharest office market is positive. In the first three quarters of 2013, office transactions were carried out in Bucharest (including both renegotiations/renewals of contracts, as well as relocations of offices), with a total volume of 208,919 sq m, according to data centralized by the Forum of the most prestigious companies in real estate consulting present in Romania, which represents approximately 25% more than in the same period of 2012.

New Demand transactions grew at an accelerated pace.

An accelerated dynamics of strategic transactions marked the third quarter of 2013 and was closely monitored by real estate consultants and developers: the expansion transactions of existing companies in the market and those entering new markets. Generically called “New Demand” transactions by real estate consultants, they registered in the 3rd quarter a total of 19,599 sq m rented, 39% more than the previous two quarters, cumulatively.

Transactions of this type are essential for players in the real estate market because they indicate the pace of development of companies and, implicitly, the office market, being an indicator according to which the need (or opportunity) to build new office buildings is predicted. A healthy office market can be considered one in which there is a progressive and constant increase in the stock of office space rented by newly entered companies or expanding companies.

“If in the first quarter of 2013 we had a total volume of 7,963 sqm of New Demand transactions and in the second quarter a capacity of 6,136 sqm, in the third quarter it rose sharply to 19,599 sqm, more than a doubling compared to the first quarter and three times more than in the second quarter. This is a good signal because New Demand transactions reduce the stock of unoccupied office space in the market and reflect a real phenomenon. This increases the confidence of companies in the prospects of their development or the local market. The growth of New Demand transactions included both large and medium-sized transactions and diversification of the environments from which they come, finding multinational companies that have resumed their expansion plans, local start-ups, international companies that are opening for the first time an office space in Romania “, declares Alexandru Petrescu, Managing Partner of ESOP Consulting | CORFAC International.

Compared to the same period last year, the third quarter of 2013 is better in this segment of transactions. From this point of view, of the New Demand transactions, the third quarter of 2013 exceeded by 49% the volume of New Demand transactions from the third quarter of 2012.