“Almost all the projects announced by the developers for 2020 have been delivered. Developers have not stopped or slowed down construction plans, even if their decision involved increased security measures on construction sites. Dynamics of new developments were supported by a record demand of 670,000 square meters, up 15% from 2019,” said Costin Banica, head of the industrial department, JLL Romania.
In 2020, most of the projects were developed in Bucharest and the surrounding area, which totaled almost 80% of the built area, respectively 465,000 sqm.
Industrial and logistics stock in Romania thus topped the 5 million sqm threshold in 2020, from 4.46 million square meters at the end of 2019.
By regions, by far most areas are found in the extended area of Bucharest (over 54% of the national stock), followed by West – North-West (17%), Center (15%), and South (almost 11%). The rest of the areas account for only 3% of the total stock but offer opportunities for future growth.
Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a record year for industrial space transactions. Over 670,000 sqm of industrial space were leased countrywide, 15% higher compared with the volume recorded in 2019, which in turn was a record year.
“The industrial space market has kept its dynamic from previous years and in 2020 we even saw more activity. The record set by demand last year encouraged developers to continue investing so that by 2021 the projects announced remain at a level comparable to that of 2020, respectively almost 590,000 square meters, which encourages us to say that this year will be a good one for this segment of the real estate market,” said Viorel Opait, Business Development Director, JLL Romania.
JLL carried out leasing transactions of over 200,000 sqm in 2020, remaining market leader for the fourth year running with a share of 32.5% of the area rented through real estate agents (640,000 sqm).
Out of the total demand of 670,000 sqm, net demand accounted for over 70%, respectively 478,000 sqm.