Subway trips reflect changes on Bucharest real estate market

Although Bucharest's office stock has nearly doubled in the last 6 years, reaching over 3 million sqm, and accommodating approximately 350,000 employees, the number of subway trips has increased by only 3% in this period, according to a Crosspoint Real Estate analysis, based on data from the subway operator Metrorex.

Thus, Metrorex recorded 177 million subway trips in 2019, up from 173 million in 2014.

However, the distribution of trips among the main routes and stations has changed significantly. The busiest station is Aurel Vlaicu in the northern part of Bucharest, which registered a 46% advance in the number of passengers, from 5.4 mln in 2014 to 8.1 mln in 2019. According to the authors of the report, this increase is directly proportional to that of the stock of offices in the area in recent years, the number of employees in the Aurel Vlaicu - Pipera areas reaching over 120,000, in 2019.

Traffic through the Pipera subway station, which serves the same office area, also went up by 23%, from 5.25 mln in 2014 to 6.43 mln trips in 2019. Meanwhile, the traffic through Bucharest’s central subway stations such as Piata Unirii 1 and Piata Unirii 2 has declined by more than 10%.

(Photo source: Andrei Gabriel Stanescu/Dreamstime.com)