Rent for industrial space to drop

The increase in the supply of industrial space will lead to a decline in rents from 5-6 euros/square metre to around 4 euros/square metre per month over the next two years, says a Colliers survey of the real estate market in Bucharest which looked at the first six months of 2005. The large number of projects due for delivery over the next few years will put up to 800,000 square metres of new industrial space onto the market, the report adds. Rents in the first half of the year stayed at the same level as the end of last year, at 4.5-6 euros/square metre per month, although pre-leases for longer periods were signed at 4-5 euros/square metre/month. Less than 20,000 square metres of industrial space came onto the market in this period, though there were in fact five new projects in development amounting to more than 50,000 square metres. Rental contracts in the first half of the year were signed for slightly less than 50,000 square metres of industrial space, most of which actually accounted for pre-leases. The largest transaction in the first half was the pre-lease signed by retailer miniMax for 14,000 square metres of space in the Mercury Logistics Center. ZF