The first three months of the year were closed with promising figures on the Romanian property market. CBRE published its Q1 2020 overview of the main commercial real estate sectors.
Investment
During the first three months of 2020, seven transactions were signed and the total investment volume for the first 3 months increased by 3% compared with the similar period in 2019. The highest volumes were registered for the office sector with a share of 60% of the investment volume, followed by the industrial sector with 25%. The transactional activity of Q1 was more diverse compared with Q1 2019.
Retail
Romania remained a magnet for new entries in the Q1 2020, but renegotiations of leasing contracts is the new norm. The structure of new supply during the past 3 years and the estimation for 2020 show a slight increase with variations from 5% to 35% over the interval. However, there are concerns regarding the final figure for 2020 directly related to the COVID-19 crisis.
Industrial
Off to a promising start of the year, Romania’s industrial market had both consistent deliveries and strong demand. During the last month of Q1, Romania was impacted by COVID -19 pandemic leading to national constraints in all business sectors. Considering the restricted movement of the population, all the shopping was basically moved online. E-commerce took an unprecedented boost.
Office
During the first quarter of 2020, a surface of almost half less than in the last quarter of 2019 was transacted in Bucharest. For the next two years another 400,000 sqm are expected to be added to the Bucharest modern office stock, raising the total at approx. 3.7 million sqm. 75% of this volume is under construction while the remaining is under different phases of planning.
