The stock of modern office space in the main regional cities in Romania - Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi and Brasov - has reached almost 700,000 square meters by the middle of this year.

The level is 3.7 times lower than in Bucharest, which is 2.6 million square meters, although the cumulative number of students in the four cities is 5.6% higher than in the capital. Data centralized by the National Institute of Statistics shows a cumulative number of 181,734 students in Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi and Brasov, compared to 172,038 students in Bucharest.

A gap in development exists between Polish regional cities as well, compared to Warsaw, the C & W Echinox representatives said.

As for the density of office space in terms of the number of students in Iasi there are 3.4 square meters / student, in Timisoara there are 3, 6 square meters / student, in Cluj-Napoca are 4.1 square meters / student and in Brasov there are 4.4 square meters / student.

"It is normal for the development of the office market to begin in the capitals, where are the headquarters of the largest firms and public institutions. But as the labor force competition becomes more and more fierce, companies are looking to expand into other major university centers where they have a well-trained workforce and the wage level is slightly lower. We see a significant growth potential in the office market outside Bucharest, as proof, by the end of 2018, the stock in Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi and Brasov will increase by 35% -40% and will approach the threshold of 1 million square meters", said Mădălina Cojocaru, Partner of Cushman & Wakefield Echinox's Office Agency.

The most significant development will be in Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca in the next period, where in each of the two are scheduled to open new office projects with an area of approximately 90,000 square meters. (source: forbes.ro)