The main regional cities in Romania – Cluj,Timisoara, Iasi & Brasov – started to become a viable option for companies looking to enter the local market or to enlarge the existing operations beginning with 2008- 2009. Compared with Bucharest, these cities were offering more competitive costs in terms of workforce and office space occupancy, the recent report of DTZ Echinox regarding regional cities in Romania shows, according to TheDiplomat.ro.
Due to their strategic location, student pool, qualified labor force and IT infrastructure, these cities have become, in recent years, the largest office markets in Romania, outside Bucharest. In 2014, office leasing activity in the main regional cities in Romania has improved significantly, being higher by 200 per cent compared with 2013. Approximately 55.000 sqm of modern office space were transacted, as the highest level recorded in the past years. Moreover, transactional activity has become diversified. New demand was in the last years, the main driver of the office market outside Bucharest.
In 2014, deals such as pre-leased renewals, which were extremely scarce in previous years, have also increased. Overall, office transactional activity has been divided between expansions and new operations -43 per cent, relocations-20per cent, pre-leases-16per cent and renewal & renegotiation deals-21per cent.
Cluj-Napoca was the most active city in terms of office transactional activity, with 63 per cent, followed by Timisoara-22per cent, Iasi-10 per cent and Brasov with 5 per cent. Technology&Telecom companies continued to be the best performing office occupiers, with 70per cent from total leasing activity, followed by Manufacturing / Industrial companies, with 30 per cent.
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