Louis-Maxime Juhel, director Office Department within BNP Paribas Real Estate Romania, said Bucharest office market has a huge potential and the current high absorption level confirms it.
According to Juhel, the first half of 2017 ended with a record volume of lease contracts concluded, namely, 157,000 square meters, higher by 7,000 sqm than the level registered in the same period a year before. Tenants have a huge appetite for newly-built Class A office buildings.
In the first half of 2017, the office space sector saw a significant decrease in vacancy rate, from approximately 13% at the end of 2016, to nearly 9% at the end of the first half of 2017.
Despite delivering new Class A office buildings, consultants expect the high demand for quality buildings can lead, in coming quarters, to a decline in vacancy rate below 7-8%. In this case, the office space market will slowly turn into a market of owners.
According to BNP Paribas analysis, the evolution of the office space market slightly narrowed the gap between prime rents and actual rents in the first six months of 2017.