Office space in Bulgaria

After long time of not happening anything interesting on the market for office space in the third quarter of this year there has been a rise in the renting and a decline in the percentage of vacant offices in the capital.

The reason is not relocation, but the entry of new companies and expanding the activities of the already existing ones.

Entrepreneurs, which have decided to invest in the construction of office space, also considered that the summer months are appropriate for the implementation of the projects. New 15,000 square meters of office space have began to be built in the period of July - September 2013.

According to Mihaela Lashova - Executive Director of Forton, the companies are taking advantage of the low operating costs - labor, taxes and price of real estate. Their business grows and they hire new staff. The search is becoming increasingly difficult, since in recent years the percentage of properties under construction declined progressively. The activity of the market led to a significant drop in the percentage of unoccupied areas and increase in the investment activity.

The ten leading office projects continue to attract the majority of tenants. The free space in them decreased by 1.1 percentage points and reached 12.6 percent.

Rents remain stable for another quarter at the level of 12.5 EUR/sq.m per month in the center of the city and between 9 and 12 EUR/sq. m in the broad center, on major boulevards and in established business areas in neighborhoods.

Lashova also says that our expectations for major shortages and quality areas are confirmed. In buildings, which have advanced enough in renting, the landlords are trying higher rent levels. On the other hand, tenants are starting to pay more attention to projects located outside the Bul. "Tzarigradsko shosse", such as the airport and the Bul. "Bulgaria".

To date, some of the projects already have a high percentage of free space, but analysts said they rather wear market equilibrium than imbalance. During the first months of 2014 we can expect moderate growth, predicted analysts.