Bucharest City Report Q1 2022

The property investment volume for Romania in Q1 2022 is estimated at approx. €68.5 million. We expect investment volumes in 2022 to reach €1 bln., 11% higher than in 2021, although accurate predictions continue to be challenging to make in this period marked by uncertainty.

The largest investment deal closed in Q1 2022 was the sale of the Record office scheme in Cluj-Napoca for a reported €35 mil. Speedwell sold the scheme to AYA Properties Fund from Belgium.

Although most companies have started recalling their employees at the office, the accommodation process is usually progressive. Thus, not all employees are required to work from the office all days of the working week, and to a certain extent, the hybrid approach of “work from home –work from office” remains. The vacancy rate slightly increased during Q1 2022, from 13.7% in the previous quarter to 14.3%, also considering a significant volume of new offices being delivered during the period.

The only major retail project to be launched in Q1 2022 was Colosseum Mall, the 16,500 m² shopping center added to the existing Colosseum Retail Parkin the north-western area of Bucharest.

The Industrial market in Romania had a good start in 2022, with total demand reaching 284,300 m². This is, however, 41% below the previous quarter, which was a record one, but 9% over Q1 2021.

In the short and medium-term, we foresee that demand for new homes will be highly impacted by the continuous increase of the key interest rate, combined with high inflation rates. The estimated total supply by the end of the year is expected to increase by approximately 17% as compared to the 2021 total supply, given that the delivery of some projects has been postponed from 2021 to 2022.