“The industrial and logistics market is going through its best period in history despite the complicated economic, social and geopolitical context. Transformations in retail, the development of e-commerce, the concern for the expansion and diversification of locations, but also the risk reduction related to the disruption of distribution chains are the main drivers of demand in Romania, but also in the Central and Eastern Europe. The high demand for such spaces is also proved by the fact that more than 50% of the projects under construction are already pre-leased,” said Andrei Brînzea, Partner Land & Industrial Agency Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.
This robust demand in the first quarter of 2022 maintains the positive trend of the industrial and logistics segment of the last two years, as more than 85% of the transactions closed between January and March 2022 targeted new spaces and only 15% represented renewal of existing contracts.
Retail and e-commerce companies have been the most active, with 35% of the total spaces leased, followed by logistics and distribution firms and automakers with shares of 15% and 10%, respectively, of the total contracted area.
It should be noted that demand in the first quarter of 2022 was no longer concentrated mostly around the capital city of Bucharest, which has traditionally attracted over 50% of the transacted volume. Bucharest had a share of 35% of the total demand, 29% of the leased area being in projects in the town of Ploiesti, 8.3% in Slatina and 8% in the city of Arad.
In terms of new project development, the first quarter was marked by a significant increase, supported both by the positive trend of demand and by higher temperatures during the winter. Thus, almost 180,000 square meters of new spaces were delivered in the first quarter of 2022, a significant increase compared with the first quarter of 2021 when only 30,000 square meters were completed.
CTP, WDP and Globalworth-Global Vision delivered the most important projects in the analysed period, in Bucharest, Calan (Hunedoara County) and Constanta. The vacancy rate was 4.7% in Bucharest and 3.8% at country level.
Projects totaling more than 500,000 square meters are currently under construction in various cities across the country. Bucharest remains the preferred destination for real estate developers, with 50% of the projects to be delivered being located around the capital city, while the cities of Timisoara, Brasov, Arad and Sibiu will also benefit from new spaces, data from Cushman & Wakefield Echinox also shows.