The ratio between the total demand and the net demand is different in Bucharest compared with the country’s large cities. Thus, in Bucharest, the net demand accounted for 30% of a total 163,000 sqm traded in the first nine months. Outside Bucharest, new office space leases accounted for 64% of a total demand for almost 40,000 sqm.
The city of Cluj-Napoca saw total office space transactions for 12,500 sqm, with new demand accounting for the bulk and in the city of Brasov, companies leased almost 11,000 sqm, with new demand accounting for 75%. Net demand made up nearly 30% of the total in the city of Timisoara, and nearly 34% in the city of Iasi.
The banking sector was the most active in terms of office space leases in Bucharest, with 19.4%, being closely followed by IT&C companies, with 19.3%, and computers & high-tech companies, with 16.6%.
At country level, including Bucharest, companies in the field of computers & high-tech account for 23.3% of the market and companies in the IT&C industry leased 17.9% of the total office space traded in Romania in the first nine months of 2020. The banking and financial sector generated 16.5% of total transactions in Romania.
After a decline of nearly 50% in office space demand in the first quarter of 2020, compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, and of 19% in the second quarter of 2020, compared with the first quarter, the market returned to growth in the third quarter, seeing an increase of nearly 41% versus the previous quarter, up to 63,000 sqm.
Overall, 36 lease transactions were signed in Bucharest in the third quarter of 2020, with the average per transaction standing at some 1,800 sqm, compared with 1,400 sqm in the previous quarter.
Bucharest’s Floreasca-Barbu Vacarescu and Center-West areas were the most attractive of Bucharest’s sub-markets, each with nine transactions, totaling around 20,000 sqm, being followed by the Center– six transactions, with 8,750 sqm, and Dimitrie Pompeiu and Baneasa Otopeni areas, each with four transactions, with a total of over 12,000 sqm each.