February 1 (SeeNews) - Trading in prime assets is expected to dominate the Bulgarian real estate market in 2017, Forton, a strategic partner of Cushman&Wakefield for Bulgaria and Macedonia, said on Wednesday.
"[...] If the expected transactions involving retail and office space are completed, the investment market can register its strongest year since 2007-2008," Yavor Kostov, capital market manager at Forton, said in a statement.
Those expectations are supported by Bulgaria's good macroeconomic indicators and the availability of first-class investment products in the segments of office space and commercial space, Forton added.
Bulgarian, Romanian and Hungarian real estate markets will attract the interest of opportunistic investors as they offer high levels of profitability and growth potential.
Investment real estate market which includes both acquisitions of commercial real estate - office, industrial, retail, and purchases of land for such construction projects, rose to 290 million euro ($313.2 million) last year, a rise of 16% over 2015.
"Demand for office space for rent keeps its momentum from the previous year, mainly due to the IT and BPO sectors. What distinguishes the market now is the expected growth in supply in 2017, with 160,000 sq m of office space in Sofia planned for completion," Stanimira Pashova, manager office spaces in Forton said in the statement.
In 2017, interest in locations outside of Sofia will increase, according to Forton. In addition to Plovdiv, Forton expects large deals in the office space segment to take place in Burgas and Varna.
In the industrial space market, Forton expects between 30,000 sq m and 40 000 sq m of additional space to be occupied for logistics purposes only in Sofia.
The market of retail space will remain well balanced as no significant additions were opened in Bulgaria last year. Prices of retail space are expected to slightly rise in 2017.