“This year is off to a promising start for the industrial market. We see high activity in terms of leasing, with automotive and retail claiming over 50% of traded volume, as well as in terms of new development, especially in regional cities. 2021 has all the premises to become a new record year for the industrial market,” said Razvan Iorgu, Managing Director, CBRE Romania.
The largest deal concluded in the first quarter was the renewal of 68,000 sqm industrial space by automotive manufacturer Dacia on the premises owned by Globalworth in Arges county.
CBRE data showed 52% of total industrial leasing activity was concluded in Bucharest in the first quarter, while the remaining 48% demand came from the southern, central and west/northwest regions. The southern part of the country generated 64% of total regional demand.
Developers added 61,000 sqm in the first quarter to the existing 5.16 million sqm of industrial stock, with most of new delivery in regional cities. The west/northwest region claimed 72% of new supply.
By the end of 2021, 600,000 sqm of modern industrial stock are expected to be delivered.
Headline rents in logistics parks were unchanged at an average of EUR3.9/sqm in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Romania’s modern retail stock is slowly but surely advancing towards a new milestone, the 4 million square-meter threshold, reaching 3.91 million sqm at the end of March after 17,000 sqm of new deliveries in the first quarter, CBRE noted.
“The retail property market has diversified and we see increasing interest for retail parks. Of the 170,000 sqm under construction and expected by the end of the year, 90% will be in retail parks of various sizes, from 3,000 to 20,000 sqm, considering that most large cities have shopping malls. Unlike other countries in the region, Romania has a relatively low stock of retail parks, less than 400,000 sqm, while such properties total over 1 million sqm in markets like Austria and Czech Republic,” said Carmen Ravon, Head of Advisory & Transaction, Retail, CBRE Romania.
The mix between online and offline sales supported by omnichannel services are a priority for retailers in 2021 and 2022. Besides online expansion, retailers in FMCG and home & deco aslo generated considerable demand for industrial space, of over 50,000 sqm in the first quarter.