The office leasing market in Romania has recorded a fall of 18% in gross take up in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period of last year, although Bucharest has seen a slight increase, according to a report by real estate consultancy JLL Romania.

Simona Șchiopotă, Managing Partner at Hitch&Mosher spoke to Property Forum about the potential of Timișoara and the western part of Romania to attract new real estate investors and the expansion of the agency’s portfolio with propert management services and commercial projects.

As students are preparing to resume their university studies in person, asking rents in large cities have gone up by up to 10% by the end of August 2022 compared to the same period of last year, according to property platform Imobiliare.ro.

Property developer Speedwell has recently obtained the building permit for the second residential building of the Paltim mixed-use project developed in Timișoara. 

The modern office stock in Romania has reached 4.3 million sqm at the end of the first semester of 2022, with another 335,300 sqm slated for delivery by the end of 2023, according to real estate consultancy CBRE. 

Strabag will build the first residential building of Speedwell’s mixed-use scheme Paltim in Timișoara and the company has been selected as the general contractor of the project. 

Sales of homes on the Romanian market totaled 85,000 units in the first half of 2022, up 3.4% compared to the same period of last year, according to real estate consultancy SVN Romania. In the same interval, sales in Bucharest and Ilfov county rose by 16.6%. 

Romania is an attractive market for international retail companies which are interested in leasing large areas, often above 1,500-2,000 sqm, according to a report by real estate consultancy CBRE. Bucharest is the leading city with 66,222 sqm of retail spaces under development, followed byu Craiova, Timișoara and Iași.

Residential asking prices in Romania grew by 2.5% in May compared to April to an average of €1,751 per sqm, with Cluj-Napoca remaining the most expensive market in the country, according to the Imobiliare.ro platform. 

Polish developer Scallier will open new retail parks with a combined surface of more than 40,000 sqm in Timișoara, Turda and Vaslui throughout 2022, after completing its first two projects in the country.