CEDER 2023 in review: Leasing demand trends

Andreea Cotiga, Head of Leasing Office, CPI Romania: “IT is no longer going to be the driver in the manner it used to be. [...] I think opportunities will come from other sectors, as well.”

A study conducted by CBRE in Q1 2023 shows that the overall volume of leasing transactions on the global market is decreasing, with big-sized tenants pulling back and the average size of transactions being smaller especially in the tech sector. While Romania is still benefiting from larger-size deals, the country is still not doing great when it comes to return-to-office numbers. The research shows that the hi-tech and business service sectors have gone down the furthest, with only 34% of people coming back to work even on the best days.

Andrei Văcaru, Head of Capital Markets at JLL, thinks the decrease in transaction volumes in offices is caused primarily by the fact that we are going through a period of price discovery, with clients “trying to understand what is happening to the fundamentals of the office market, but also what the right price is.”

During the Office Panel held at CEDER 2023, Andreea Cotiga said: „We've managed to close last year with over 60,000 square meters of secured office spaces within our local portfolio. And the biggest share out of this comes from the companies that are active in sectors like business services or business goods. [...] We have two buildings in our portfolio, totalizing a bit over 17,000 square meters, that we'll host to private hospitals to be inaugurated this year and next year, respectively.”

Despite acknowledging that there are definitely factors leading to an increasingly cautious attitude from clients who are trying to define their office footprint needs in light of the hybrid working models applied everywhere in the world, Andreea added that, in her opinion, there are still a multitude of opportunities on the market and that these opportunities demand creativity in seeing them and exploring them “in a clever and timely manner, to take advantage of the momentum”.