For over of half of these spaces, tenants chose to stay in the same office buildings, which triggered the signing of extension contracts.
The segment of contract renegotiations saw an increase versus the previous quarter and versus the same quarter of 2019. The third quarter of 2020 saw the extension of office space lease contracts totaling an area larger by 77% than in the same period in 2019.
“A positive signal is the resumption of the office space trading activity in new business centers. Even though the volume of contract extensions is higher than the volume of relocations to new buildings, the trend of relocations could be upward over the next 12 months, because now tenants can capitalize on owners’ higher availability to offer competitive rent prices and turnkey solutions of office space fitting, under the new anti-COVID -19 conditions,” stated Alexandru Petrescu, Managing Partner at ESOP Consulting l CORFAC International.
In the second quarter of 2020, which included the lockdown period triggered by the COVID -19 pandemic, the segment of contract renegotiations fell to 24% compared with the same period in 2019, the same as the entire market.
New office space leases and pre-leases reached a total 23,268 sqm in the third quarter of 2020, 40% lower than the level reported in the same period in 2019.