JLL: Romania’s industrial and logistics market to reach 4 million sqm this year

The industrial and logistics market in Romania experiences its best period in history in terms of demand and supply, and it will reach the threshold of 4 million sqm this year as major developments will be completed, according to the real estate consultant JLL.

The inventory of industrial and logistics spaces in Romania has reached 3.75 million sqm at the end of last year, and half of them (1.9 million sqm) are located close to Bucharest, mostly in the western part of the Capital city.

On this market, Bucharest is followed by Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Ploiesti and Pitesti.

The biggest projects completed last year are CTPark Bucharest West (115,000 sqm), WdP Pitesti (60,000 sqm) and P3 (55,000 sqm).

In 2018, new spaces of 400,000 sqm were delivered, while this year the developers will complete around 500,000 sqm.

In 2018, ”the total demand has reached for the third year in a row around 500,000 sqm,” JLL said.

In the last quarter of 2018, contracts for 324,000 sqm were signed for renting industrial and logistics spaces.

“The demand came mostly from retail companies, which rented 265,000 sqm (almost half of total demand), followed by distribution and logistics companies (17 percent) and consumer goods firms (12 percent),” JLL points out.

Given that the occupancy rate is over 95 percent in most cities, the level of rents continues to be stable, between EUR 3.5 and 4.1/sqm/month, depending on various criteria such as occupancy time, surface area or technical specifications.