At the country level, large cities have an increasing share in the total number of office rentals, to the detriment of the capital. In Bucharest, contracts were rented, pre-rented and extended for a total office area of about 75,700 sqm, while in Iasi of 11,355 sqm, in Cluj-Napoca of 9,293 sqm and in Timisoara of 6,415 sqm.

“The regionalization of the office market will remain a constant of the coming years, as it happened with the development of several business poles in Bucharest. Over time, their number has increased, and business areas have covered a larger area of the city, reducing the pressure on the transport infrastructure, and creating a diversity of supply.

In the same way, office segments in cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara are developing, but more cautiously. Investors only move from one stage of the projects to another after making sure that there is a current demand. Until now, regional markets have attracted more and more large demand, from multinational companies, which have seen an opportunity in the well-trained workforce, in regional universities and which are now expanding easily from one city to another, depending on the availability of quality office spaces”, says Nicolae Ciobanu, Managing Partner – Head of Advisory Fortim Trusted Advisors, an alliance member of the BNP Paribas Real Estate.

The largest transaction outside Bucharest was made in Iasi, where Preh Romania pre-leased an area of 4,500 sqm offices, in a building still under construction, in the Palas Campus project.

Among the large office tenants who have chosen another city, besides Bucharest, there are also Accenture (in Cluj-Napoca), Linde Global Services, Hella (in Iasi), Tech Mahindra (in Timisoara), Expleo (Iasi).

In the third quarter of 2022, Accenture rented an office space in the Hexagon Offices building in Cluj-Napoca, Linde Global Services pre-leased in the UBC 0 building, from the Iulius Town Timisoara project, and Preh Romania, Hella and Expleo pre-leased in the Palas Campus project.

“The new office buildings in the primary and secondary cities of Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Brasov and Craiova have the same high-quality standards A and the same types of facilities for employees (retail areas, services, common spaces for socialization, green certifications), as those in Bucharest.

In addition, in primary and secondary cities, other premium office projects are in development, which will ensure constant deliveries of new offices over the next two to three years.

In Bucharest, this year, the level of deliveries has been drastically reduced, which has also led to an expectative of the companies. In the coming years, the offices deliveries also will decrease, if we consider all the projects announced by developers and under construction for the period 2023-2025“, adds Bogdan Cange, Managing Partner – Business Development Fortim Trusted Advisors, an alliance member of the BNP Paribas Real Estate.

Since the beginning of the year until now, 30% of the total transactions in Bucharest have been represented by renegotiations, with a total area of 72,522 sqm.