The increase will cement its position as the second most important city of the country by office space stock after Bucharest, ZF has calculated based on real estate consultant DTZ Echinox data.
Even though it is the first city other than the capital city to overshoot the 200,000 square meter office space mark, Cluj-Napoca is still lagging far behind Bucharest, where the stock of office space stands at more than 2.2 million square meters.
The main office buildings scheduled for delivery in 2015 in Cluj-Napoca include a new 18,000 square meter building in the The Office complex developed by South Africa’s NEPI, and a new 11,000 square meter building in the Liberty Technology Park complex developed by Fribourg Development, the real estate division of private equity firm Fribourg Capital of businessman Ion Sturza.
Cluj County has become an important business hub with many companies opening offices there so the unemployment rate stood at 2.6% in May, compared with a national average of 5%, according to Romania’s employment agency ANOFM.
“Considered a genuine Silicon Valley, though on a smaller scale, Cluj-Napoca is one of the most attractive cities in Romania for technology and telecommunications companies,” DTZ Echinox officials say.
Class A office space rent stands at EUR13 to EUR15/square meter in Cluj-Napoca at the moment, according to DTZ Echinox, compared with EUR14 to EUR16 in Bucharest in an area like Floreasca-Barbu Vacarescu (connecting the center to the north of the city). Vacancy rate in Cluj-Napoca stood is 7%, while in Bucharest it reached 13% at the end of last year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)