Total real estate investments in Romania down 13 pct in January-September 2018

Transactions in Bucharest represented 76 per cent of the total volume of transactions recorded at national level, in the context in which liquidity continues to improve in the secondary cities. 

"In Romania we only operate 8 per cent of our region's transactions, almost half compared with Hungary and three folds less compared with the Czech Republic. And this happens in the context in which the Hungarian economy is smaller than the Romanian one, while the Czech economy is similar to Romania's. This comes down to the investors' perception of our country, although the financing conditions have improved in the past 18 months, with structures and costs now closer to the ones on the Central and Eastern European markets," says Andrei Vacaru, head of capital markets of JLL Romania. 

He also specified that in 2018 the total volume of transactions was dominated by the office spaces (about 56 per cent) and retail spaces (about 30 per cent), followed by the industrial and residential spaces. 

"In end-September, the yields accounted for 8 per cent for the industrial spaces, 7.25 per cent for the office spaces and 7 per cent for retail. In the next period, we expect yields to stay stable, except for the ones for the industrial area, which could decrease even more. Bucharest offers a unique combination of stable rents and yield compression potential against the very high liquidity existing on the other European markets," said Andrei Vacaru. 

The value of the modern office stock is, at national level, of 2.64 million sq m, out of which 58 per cent are A class buildings. Deliveries of new rental office spaces have reached up to 111,000 sq m in the first nine months of 2018. 

IT continues to be the biggest player on the local market, according to specialists, as in 2019 the delivery of new spaces is expect to be high. Rentals of offices under a coworking regime is estimated to increase in 2019. 

"The industrial&logistics spaces market is the real star this year. The markets is maturing, with the vacancy rate for the first nine months, of 5 per cent, being a healthy one. This market has doubled in the past three years and is getting closer to the European average of 200 sq m/one thousand inhabitants, with its 195 sq m/ one thousand inhabitants," say the specialists. 

The total stock of modern spaces on the retail market is of approx. 3.1 million sq m, with a density of 151 sq m per one thousand inhabitants. According to the real estate consultants, Romania continues to be one of the main destinations in Europe for international retailers, while it has an important growth potential and also the purchase power is expected to improve. 

Bucharest, according to City Momentum Index - JLL Global is ranking 30th in 2018 worldwide. The rankings is based on the mixture of socio-economic and real estate indexes, and this is for the first time when the Romanian capital is included in such ranking. As a trend, it is noticed a significant increase of the pace dedicated to the Food&Beverages sector, from 5 up to 10-15 per cent in Europe and about 8 per cent in Romania.

Agerpres