Lease transactions in Q2 2021 on Bratislava’s office market reached 37,000 sqm, representing a 19% increase year-on-year. Bratislava Research Forum announced the office market figures for Q2 2021.
In the second quarter of 2021, the total office stock in Bratislava reached more than 1.96 million sqm. 64% of total stock consists of Class A office space and 36% of Class B office space. During the period, one new office building, Metropolitan Star, with a total area of 2,734 sqm was added to the market. 4 more Class A projects with a total area of more than 41,000 sqm are waiting to be completed by the end of the year.
In terms of the ownership structure, approximately 4% of the office stock is state-owned, 13% are buildings owned and fully occupied by the same entity, and the total stock for commercial use remains at 83% (or around 1.6 million sqm) of total modern office stock in Bratislava.
In total, Bratislava offers up to 662,234 sqm of office space with a valid green / sustainable building certificate. This is 34% of the total volume of office space in Bratislava or 34 out of 293 buildings. 62% of the certified stock has BREEAM, 4% BREEAM / WELL GOLD and 34% LEED certificate. Only the Twin City Tower has the highest BREEAM Outstanding rating, and in the case of LEED Platinum, the Digital Park buildings and Ein Park Offices are its only current holders. Nivy Tower is also undergoing BREEAM certification, after which the share of buildings with a green building certificate will further increase.
Office market transactions (take-up)
Lease transactions in the second quarter of 2021 reached a total area of approx. 37,000 sqm, which represents a 19% increase in leased space compared to the same quarter of last year. New leases accounted for 51% of the total take-up, renegotiations 43%, lease-expansions 4%, while the remaining 2% were pre-leases.
The largest transaction this quarter is a new contract in the pharmaceutical sector with an area of 4,200 square meters, but we also record another 11 transactions with an individual area exceeding 1,000 sqm.
The majority of leased space this quarter was leased within the manufacturing sector (20%), the pharmaceutical sector (15%), the financial sector (15%), the legal services (11%), and IT (11%).
Office vacancy and rents
The overall vacancy rate in Bratislava decreased to 12.22% from 12.57% in the previous quarter. The lowest vacancy rate was recorded in the City Centre submarket (6.77%), followed by the Inner City (10.58%), Outer City (14.41%), CBD (14.47%) and South Bank, recording the highest vacancy rate of 17.63%. The reason for the continuing increase in vacancy rates is, in addition to the reduction in demand during the pandemic, the completion of several office properties that were not completely pre-leased.
Prime rent remained unchanged at €16.50 / sqm / month compared to the previous quarter. a
