In the first half of the year, the most class A office spaces were rented in Bucharest, a total volume of 121,058 sqm, net take-up and 165,362 sqm, if we include the renegotiations. In the rest of the country, modern office spaces were leased with a total area of 27,993 sq m net take-up and 33,993 sq m, including renegotiations. The first three big cities in the top, Timișoara, Iași and Cluj-Napoca accumulated 98% of the demand.

"The demand profile for offices in the other big cities is different, compared to that in Bucharest. If in Bucharest the share of IT&C companies among new tenants decreased, to around one third of the total demand, in the rest of the country the share of IT&C companies is much higher, at 83%.

This creates effervescence in local markets, with IT&C companies being more concerned with ensuring the best possible office conditions to attract their employees. The demand of IT&C companies is therefore mainly directed towards new, modern buildings with numerous facilities", declares Nicolae Ciobanu, Managing Partner - Head of Advisory Fortim Trusted Advisors, member of the BNP Paribas Real Estate Alliance.

In the top of the primary cities, Timișoara leads in terms of the volume of office spaces rented this year, with a total of 19,251 sqm. Among the companies that have chosen new premises are Amazon, Access Group, Canon and Toluna, and Atos has extended a lease on existing space.

The pace of demand correlates much more quickly with the pace of supply of new Class A space in primary and secondary cities. New office buildings, in mixed projects, with commercial spaces on the ground floor or nearby are like a magnet for companies, especially for those in the IT&C field.

In 2022, Timisoara attracted 57% of the demand for new office space from primary and secondary cities, with several companies choosing to pre-lease space in a 17-storey office tower, UBC 0, which has a total area of 32,000 sqm and which will be put into use this year. UBC 0 is part of the Iulius Town Timisoara project.

In second place in the list of cities is the university center of Iași, with a percentage of 31% of the total office space rented in the first six months, outside the capital. Among the big companies that have chosen this city are Microsoft, AMD and Visma. All these future tenants have signed pre-lease contracts for offices in the Palas Campus project, which will be put into use next year.

In third place in the top, this year, is the city of Cluj-Napoca, which attracted office tenants such as EBRD, Vodafone and Planet Group International. Cluj-Napoca was the leader last year, in the top of class A office space rentals, due to the fact that the offer of new buildings with large spaces available was much more varied in 2021, with the recently delivered Hexagon Offices and Record Park buildings. At this moment, the office vacancy rate in Cluj-Napoca is among the lowest in the country, at 8.9%.

In Bucharest, the vacancy rate for class A office spaces is 13.18%, down from the beginning of the year.