Colliers survey: Office market in RO won’t recover this year

Nearly 70% of owners and tenants on the Romanian office space market believe that the COVID-19 epidemic will continue to hamper their activity throughout this year.

The first signs of recovery are expected in 2021, according to a study by real estate consultancy firm Colliers International among 60 owners and over 100 tenants.

"While most tenants expect their employees to return to the office by fall, office owners worry that the impact of the epidemiological crisis on the real estate market will be at least similar to the financial crisis in 2009," the study shows.

Most of the tenants expect to return to the office later this summer, according to the survey. "A quarter of tenants are expected to resume office activity in May while 67% believe this will happen during the summer," according to the survey.

About 55% of them are already dealing with negative impact over their business due to COVID-19, with those active in medical, retail, and shared offices being the most affected. Only 16% say that their business has not been affected so far, and 6% are positively impacted to some extent. While a quarter of tenants do not have a clear picture of the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic on the team, 41% expect to keep the number of employees, and about 17% even estimate an increase this year.

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