The street front retail space on the ground floor of apartment buildings, a business dominated a small number of companies, has become the destination of choice for supermarket chains, pharmacies, betting parlors and banks in the past two years, which seek areas with visibility and potential in terms of customer numbers.
“This market stands at about two billion euros and 1 million to 1.1 million square meters,” says Bogdan Petcu, senior consultant with real estate consultant Knight Frank.
The biggest owners of street front retail space in Bucharest, according to the latest available data, are Romarta, a real estate company held by private equity firm Broadhurst (run by businessman Siminel Andrei in Romania), Pacific (Radu Dimofte), Universal and Meteor (held by Cyprus-based companies), Romconsulting, held by Raluca Petcu and Generalcom of businessman Alain Bonte.
Real estate consultants say this is a fragmented market, divided among major owners and individuals who own some retail space, too.
A 100 to 200 square meter street front retail space costs EUR20 to EUR25/square meter, consultants say. At an average of EUR20/square meter rent per month and one million square meters of space, the rent stands at EUR20 million to EUR25 million per month, ZF has calculated.
Practic SA owns five hectares of retail and office space and is one of the biggest owners in Bucharest. Retail space accounts for 350,000 square meters of that.
The Romarta retail space chain owns about 300 stores totaling 120,000 square meters in Bucharest, ZF has found.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)