The development of the business process outsourcing (BPO), shared service centre (SSC) and IT sectors has had a significant impact on demand for prime office space in Romania’s capital Bucharest, according to Skanska, one of the leading development and construction companies in Europe.
In the first quarter of 2019, Romanian GDP grew by 5.1 per cent, while it increased by 4.1 per cent in 2018 – double the total aggregated result recorded in the eurozone at the same time. A well performing market and the good condition of its economy is also clearly evidenced by investment volumes on the real estate market. According to forecasts, this market‘s investment volume is expected to exceed 1.1 billion euros by the end of 2019.
“Until recently, investors aiming to diversify their portfolio of assets mainly focused their attention on Warsaw, Prague and Budapest,” said Mike Atwell, head of capital markets Czech Republic and leader director CEE Capital Markets. “Of course, these locations are still highly attractive and provide favorable conditions for investing capital, however, we are observing a significant increase in Romania’s investment importance, especially its capital city. Bucharest is the country’s biggest office market where attractive prime yields and relatively low vacancy rates encourage developers to start new projects, with almost 300,000 square meters expected to be delivered in 2019.”
“Along with high demand for office space in Bucharest among tenants, we also observe increasing activity of investors who want to have top-quality assets from different parts of CEE in their portfolio and still look for high returns on investment,” added Adrian Karczewicz, head of divestments at the Skanska commercial business development unit in CEE.
