New office deliveries in regional cities totaled 83,000 sqm in 2023 and the total leasable area has climbed close to 1.1 million sqm, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report. Offices in regional cities of the likes of Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara and Brașov represent around 30% of the corresponding total in Bucharest.
Cluj-Napoca remains the largest regional office hub, with 340,400 sqm of leasable space at the end of 2023 (31.5% of the total), followed by Iași, where the stock expanded after the delivery of Palas Campus (60,000 sqm) and the first phase of Silk District (23,000 sqm) to 296,200 sqm (27.4% of the total). In Timișoara the stock stood at 293,500 sq m (27.1%), while in Brașov it reached 152,200 sqm (14%).
Going forward, the office pipeline is limited and comprises two projects with a leasable area of 26,000 that will be completed by early 2025.
Developers have also announced plans to start the construction of further 170,000 sqm of new office spaces in the major regional cities in the next five years, of which 75,000 sqm are located in Cluj - Napoca, 81,000 sqm in Iași and 10,000 sqm in Brașov.
Vlad Săftoiu, Head of Research Cushman & Wakefield Echinox, says there is potential for regional cities to absorb another 400,000 sqm of offices in the long term.
In regional cities, the demand was driven by IT&C companies that had a share of more than 60% in the 2023 take-up. Nonetheless, the leased area in regional cities fell 50% year-on-year.
The report further shows that Cluj - Napoca has the lowest vacancy rate (6.2%) outside Bucharest, while 10.7% and 11.8% of the Timișoara and Brașov office stocks are unoccupied. Moreover, a higher vacancy rate of 20.4% is recorded in Iași, mostly in B class buildings.
