“The retail, office and industrial space market is currently developing on solid fundamentals, with high occupancy rates, active demand confirmed by evolution in the past years and stable rents. In these circumstances, the development of new projects has accelerated in all major sectors. We expect new stock will be quickly absorbed by the market as a considerable share has already been contracted,” said Florian Gheorghe, head of research at Activ Property Services.
The biggest growth is in the industrial sector, where expected deliveries are 67% higher than last year. New stock announced for 2018 exceeds 920,000 square meters, and over 75% will be leasable.
In Bucharest alone, expected industrial stock delivery stands at 390,000 sqm, or 42% of national stock. The capital city is followed by Timisoara (60,000 sqm), Cluj-Napoca (55,000 sqm), Pitesti (55,000 sqm), Ploiesti (50,000 sqm), Oradea (45,000 sqm), and Constanta (42,500 sqm).
The most active developers of leasable spaces are CTP Invest with over 285,000 sqm to be delivered in 2018, WDP with 150,000 sqm, and Zacaria Group with 75,000 sqm. The biggest project announced for this year is a new 120,000 sqm warehouse for online retailer eMAG.
The retail space market has the potential to see new stock deliveries totaling 379,000 sqm in 2018, up 43% compared with 2017. Growth is expected from the retail park segment. Nearly 215,000 sqm of “big box” spaces will be delivered in 2018 and the biggest areas are generated by the expansion of retail chains Kaufland, Penny Market, and Lidl.
NEPI Rockcastle dominates development activity on the retail segment, covering 79% of deliveries announced for this year.
On the office space segment, deliveries are expected to grow 35% countrywide to a total of 350,000 sqm. More than half the expected office stock will be delivered in Bucharest.
Office deliveries are set to reach a record 153,000 sqm in the rest of the country, 65% higher than last year.