The demand in Bucharest office market will increase by 20-30 percent this year: C&W Echinox

The demand for office spaces in Bucharest will increase by 20-30 percent this year, given that a significant part of the major tenants have exceeded expectations and are actively evaluating the options for space optimization, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox consultants.

During 2020, the transactional volume decreased by 40 percent, up to 237,000 square meters, amid the Covid-19 pandemic that caused most companies to adopt the remote work on a large scale, postponing as much as possible the decisions with medium and long term impact.

2021 started with different premises, given that the global number of Covid-19 cases has halved compared to the end of 2020, and the positive evolution of the vaccination campaigns allows the authorities to relax the restrictive measures. In this context, after a year in which companies have assessed the impact of remote work through internal analysis or specialised consultants, they are now in a position to rethink their space needs in a market that has become favorable for them.

Bogdan Bogatu, Director Office Agency, Cushman & Wakefield Echinox: “We can say that the beginning of this year brought an even higher volume of activity compared to the beginning of 2020, when almost no one could foresee the major impact of the Covid-19 pandemic extent. We are currently working for projects under construction of more than 70,000 square meters in Bucharest and regional cities, for some of the largest corporations locally present, that are aware of the favourable moment to re-establish their contracts, whether they are renegotiations, consolidations, restraints or even extensions of spaces. In this context, we expect the transactional volume to increase substantially in 2021, by at least 20-30 percent, and to return above the 300,000 square meters level.”