Andreea Ciobanu, Hagag: “In the future we will see more of this hospitality-like vibe in office buildings”

“Hagag owns and operates two office buildings in the center of Bucharest, old buildings that have been renovated, consolidated, and modernized.

At the end of 2022, we were announcing our first H Private flex-office project – H Private Arghezi, which, unlike traditional co-working, serves professionals that are looking for more privacy, that want a private office and are less enthusiastic about working from a shared office.

We completed H Victoriei 109 in 2020, and today we are at 100 percent occupancy. And everyone is in the office full time, both us and the tenants. It is due to the specificities of the business models.

The construction works for our project in Tudor Arghezi were completed towards the end of 2022. The decision to enter the private offices business segment was powered by the increased demand volumes we had for small surfaces (20 sqm, 50 sqm, 70 sqm, etc.),” Andreea Ciobanu, Chief Marketing Officer, Hagag Development Europe said at Workplace of the Future conference organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“At that time, due to the dynamics of the office market, the best solution to increase occupancy and promote H Tudor Arghezi 21 was developing H Private. After a year and a half of activity in H Private, 3 of our tenants expanded their business to the point of relocating to a ​​conventional space in the building.

Out of the total of 23 active tenants in H Private Arghezi, only 2 tenants chose the hybrid work model, the rest being full time in the office. We did notice that one of these tenants is now looking to return full time to the office, but it encounters a bit of difficulties due to the limited space it currently occupies.

The office is not dead. The office is evolving. And we can observe a very interesting evolution of office spaces in recent years, based on employee experience. In the future, office spaces will be perceived as collaboration hubs, therefore they must be developed in such a way that they can attract employees; they need to become inspirational spaces.

I think that in the future we will see more of this hospitality-like vibe in office buildings. We will also see an evolution on the flex offices segment, including among developers.”

Hagag Development Europe is a real estate investor-developer specialized in the development of residential and commercial projects in Romania, listed at the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange. The company is involved in the purchase, development, renovation, marketing, and management of several assets located in both privileged locations and emerging areas across Bucharest and is the first player on the local market that has been placing significant investments into developing and growing the niche segment of urban renewal through the reconversion of old, historical buildings with unique architectural presence.