SOFIA (Bulgaria), December 14 (SeeNews) – The Bulgarian commercial properties market will mainly be driven by acquisitions of office and retail space next year, Forton, a strategic partner of Cushman&Wakefield for Bulgaria and Macedonia, said on Wednesday.
In 2016, the aggregate value of deals on the Bulgarian commercial properties market stayed at last year’s level, between 250 million and 270 million euro ($265 million - $287 million), Forton said in a press release.
The notable imbalance between supply and demand on the office space market is set to persist in 2017, which will lead to higher rental prices for prime office space. At the moment, rents for prime office space in Sofia are priced at around 13 - 13.5 euro per square metre.
A total of 150,000 sq. m. of office space are expected to be completed in Sofia in 2017. One-third of that area has already been rented out prior to completion, which is a trend that is expected to continue into 2017.
The IT and outsourcing sectors, which accounted for 60% of all office space rental deals in 2016, are expected to remain the main market drivers in 2017.
No new big retail centers are expected to be completed next year, which is also expected to lead to a slight increase in the retail space rental prices, which currently stand around 28 euro per sq. m.
Health and Beauty has been among the most quickly developing sectors, in terms of renting retail space in 2016.
Insufficient supply of industrial space is expected to persist in 2017. Building activity remains high, however most projects are “built to suit”, which leave the space available for rent on the current low level, Forton said. Some 23,000-33,000 sq.m. of industrial space are expected to be added in 2017.
The main development on the Bulgarian industrial space market in 2016 has been the expansion of the activities of automotive components manufacturers, Forton said.
($ = 0.9413 euro)