If the consumption will also confirm the ascending trend started this year, definitely the logistics will also be positively influenced, witnessing expansions from the logistic companies and maybe new entries on the market, said Cristina Pop, head of industrial agency within JLL.
The logistics and industrial market had this year a positive feeling and new investors entered the market, while the already present are thinking to start new speculative projects.
“Compared to 2013, the industrial segment increased and started to be attractive due to the huge industrial potential of Romania, mainly for those investors which are not yet active in Romania. If by 2013 the market was only explored, this year we assisted to real acquisitions, one of the most important being P3, through the buying of Europolis, the largest industrial park in Romania, being only a single example of the growing interest”, Pop added.
Rodica Tarcavu, head of industrial department underlined that the market was effervescent in 2014, with significant transactions both on the investments segment and on the rentals segment, which exceeded 180,000 sq. m by mid-December.
„Timisoara absorbed approx. 100,000 sq. m, representing 60 pct of the total of transactions. We are optimistic that this dynamic trend will continue in 2015 and that the market will enter a new phase of speculative developments, reconfiguring on more solid bases, after a cycle of more than 10 years where all the phases were covered – from development, to boom, maturity, contraction, stagnation”, added Rodica Tarcavu.
However the focus on the Western area could not continue in the near future, some real estate analysts are warning. „From the industrial point of view, it is very likely that in the near future other zones to develop, than those currently in the attention of the investors, as the problems with the workforce in the West, near the Hungarian border, will accentuate”, said Laura Dumea Bencze, head of research within CBRE.
Regarding the development, Laura Dumea Bencze considers that the ‘build to suit’ properties will continue to dominate the market, as the speculative ones are no longer preferred by the developers, taking into consideration the current features of the market.
The CBRE representative said that on the production segment, the request is mainly sustained by the automotive sector. On the other hand, there were no spectacular developments on the logistics sector in 2014.
“Due to the economic situation in the recent years, many companies which have “survived” this critical period, were oriented towards costs reduction, but also consolidated their business, and even started to develop in the last year. I mainly refer to the production area, such as Kromberg&Schumberg in Arad, Yazaki in Braila as few examples which confirm this”, said Pop.
On the other hand, JLL officials considers that as the consumption will increase, the request for warehouses will also grow, and the e-commerce will definitely bring growth in the market. “We expect that in 2015 the production segment to be still the “star”, but as long as the consumption will be stimulated, the warehouse requests will also grow. The e-commerce started to strongly develop in Romania, and 2015 will definitely bring important growth”, said Cristina Pop.
Considering the market’s challenges, the analysts include the economic growth sustainability, the infrastructure and the support for the investors to come in Romania, subjects already became traditional.(Source: wall-street.ro)
