Demand for logistics and industrial space is close to registering a new record in 2022 as the vacancy rate reached 4.3% at the end of Q3, which is one of the lowest levels in the last decade, according to real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

The real estate and construction sector has attracted around €12 billion of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the last ten years, as the share of this economic activity in the overall FDI stock increased to a level of 17.4% at the end of 2021, compared with 9.2% in 2012, according to data from the National Bank of Romania analyzed by real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

Residential developers have been the most active in terms of land acquisitions in the past 2.5 years, as they secured land plots which allow the construction of more than 30,000 units in all parts of Bucharest, according to data from real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

Companies are now concerned with creating the best conditions to meet the employees’ needs as they resume work in the office buildings, according to data from real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Real estate investments amounting to around €1.2 billion are currently in various stages of negotiation, while over €600 million in investment volumes were completed in the first eight months of this year, according to real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

The total office stock in Bucharest reached 3.3 million sqm at the end of the first semester of 2022, with just one new building (AFI Tech Park – phase 2) spanning 25,000 sqm being completed in the second quarter of this year. 

Industrial developer CTP will expand its project in Craiova with a new warehouse of 13,500 sqm that has been fully leased. Following the new investment slated for completion by the end of 2022, the total leasable surface will climb to 53,500 sqm.

The most exposed sectors to the inflationary pressures in Romania are the residential, industrial and retail ones, with a lot more resilience found in the office segment, suggest representatives of real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

The retail market in Romania is set to expand by more than 500,000 sqm in the next four years, with 10 of the projects in the pipeline each having more than 10,000 sqm, according to  Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

More than 50% of the industrial and logistics projects under construction in Romania are already pre-leased with leasing activity in Q1 2021 rising by 50% to over 300,000 sqm compared to the same quarter of 2021, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.