LM Legal Services Blog

In the last quarter of 2009 the first signs of activity have appeared on the rental market of office space in Bulgaria. Analysts claim that this was due to the efforts of the owners to stimulate prospective tenants with bonuses like rent free periods and payment of the relocation. The much lower rents of newly built offices proved to be a good incentive for many companies to relocate.

The expectation in 2010 are that the size of the unoccupied office spaces will continue to grow due to the large number of new offices that are expected to be offered on the market. In the last quarter of 2009 new offices with total area of 38 200 sq m entered the market. In 2008 their total area was 65 900 sq m. The largest projects have been planned to be completed in 2010 and thus the expectations are that by the end of the current year the newly finished office space will total 360 000 sq m.

In the end of 2009 the office space in Sofia exceeded 1 million sq m of which 80% were situated on the main boulevards and in the outskirts of the city. The completion of about 460 000 sq m of office space has been delayed or frozen.

The rent was 13.50 EUR/sq m for offices class A in the last months of 2009. The average rent for the same period of 2008 was 17 EUR/sq m. The offices of class B and C are offered at 8 and 4 EUR/sq m respectively. It is expected that these levels will remain the same in 2010.

The yield from first class office space in Sofia stays at 11%.

Related posts:

1. Construction Of New Buildings – 70% Drop
2. Bulgarian Middle Class – Overview