More than 650.000 sqm of warehouse were leased in Romania in 2020

Real estate agencies have brokered more than 650.000 sqm of warehousing spaces during last year, althroughout Romania. Most of the contracts were new leases, which is very positive for a pretty atypycal year from a commercial perspective.   

Against all fears, pesimistic forecasts and slowed workload, 2020 was even better than 2019 as regards the leased industrial spaces. (more than 650.000 sqm vs. ~475.000 sqm). 

Q1 and Q3 were both in 2019 and 2020 lower in value compared to Q2 and Q4. This aspect can be related to the months of January, when the start of the year can be slower, but also July and August, that are usually holiday periods. On the other hand, we can observe an evident growth of activity during this summer, when people have either gave up their holidays altogether or they have decreased the duration of their vacations. In the industry, this translated into 117.510 sqm being transacted in Q3 2020 vs a little over 60.000 sqm in 2019, Q3 being also the slowest trimester af the year before the pandemics.  

The top industries regarding the rented surfaces were FMCG – 38% of the market share (boosted last year by the growth of online commerce), logistics (15% of the transactions) and retail (13% of all rented surfaces). Production and pharma follow in line.  

Most of the contracts were signed for Bucharest, followed by Timisoara, also a major city in this domain and by Craiova, which was last year’s surprise. 

The most active developers working with the real estate agencies were WDP, who has rented through them 162.640 sqm, followed close behind by CTP (154.044 sqm) and P3 (133.450 sqm). 

„In march, Europe has known a time of slowdown, once the lockdown was established in several European capital cities. At that time, 2020 seemed to be compromised from an economic perspective, but lookes like, from the industrial transactions point of view, it has been benefficial and quite active. The market has registered an amazing growth of almost 40% and the most encouraging is that most of the transactions (52%) were new leases, folowed by renewals or renegotiations and pre-leases. This is a very positive sign for the manufacturers and distributors in FMCG and retail, first of all!, Marian Orzu, Managing Partner Dunwell Industrial Brokerage states. 

The > 650.000 sqm brokered constitute 84 contracts signed althroughout the country, by all the agencies active in the industry.  Dunwell Industrial Brokerage is the first on top regarding the number of signed contracts, having brought 19 new tenants in warehouses suitable for their activities. 

„We were extremely active during 2020. 18 out of the 19 transactions that we have brokered were new-leases. This means that we have not waited for things to get going, we made them happen, we have signed the most transactions in the market (new leases also) and we have started 2021 strong, with a very good pipeline, that we are looking forward to turn into reality!” says Daniel Cautiș, Managing Partner Dunwell Industrial Brokerage.