Romanian office market falls by 36 pct, to 300,000 square meters

Last year, the Romanian office market fell by 36% from a record 470,000 square meters in 2019 to 300,000 square meters, real estate consulting company JLL Romania announced on Tuesday. According to the quoted source, the areas include transactions carried out through agents and those concluded directly between the landlords and tenants. "Nearly 120,000 square meters of office space representing new demand means that offices have been rented for at least 12,000 new employees. It is lower than in 2019, but it is encouraging to see companies that have continued to expand and create new jobs despite the uncertainties and changes that appeared on the labor market in 2020," said Marius Scuta, Head of Office Department and Tenant Representation of JLL Romania. Last year, JLL had a nearly 34% share of the office space rental market, more than double compared to the holder of the second place, CBRE, the company said on Tuesday. Thus, out of the total office space transactions conducted through agents in 2020 at national level, of about 225,000 square meters, JLL was involved in renting 76,000 square meters. "Even though 2020 has been a difficult year for the entire local real estate market and beyond, I am proud that our team has managed to remain the market leader for the third consecutive year in a segment hard tried by this crisis. Moreover, last year, JLL managed, among other things, to carry out the largest rental transaction ever made on the office market outside Bucharest, in a hill of over 30,000 square meters. JLL team's experience, flexibility, as well as our clients' trust were the ones who allowed us this performance. I would like to thank them in this way!," said Marius Scuta.AGERPRES(RO - author: Nicoleta Banciulea, editor: Mariana Nica; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)