Over 7,000 employees have changed offices in Bucharest this year

At least 20 large companies have moved to another office space of Bucharest this year, particularly as projects City Gate of Piața Presei Libere and Lakeview of Barbu Văcărescu were finalised, reveals a ZF survey, which estimates that 7,000 employees with office jobs work with these companies. Among the broadest relocations were those of Garanti and Millennium Bank, Rompetrol, Romtelecom or Transelectrica companies, as well as of PricewaterhouseCoopers audit firm, which has recently moved from Piața Operei to Lakeview office building. As Bucharest traffic is a daily headache for most employees, companies tend to seek spaces as close to employees as possible. Other firms, instead, are making sacrifices as regards the area the office building is located in to slash costs, but they need to offer their employees other facilities, such as making microbuses available for them or paying their petrol bills. The office market gained buzz in the first half of this year, but the volume of signed contracts is still low. In the case of this year’s relocations, not all the contracts were signed this year, but as early as 2008, when economic outlooks were not as grim.