Outsourcing companies to be the main players in the field of commercial real estate in 2013
Foreign investment in export-oriented productions and services will be a major driving force for the commercial property market in Bulgaria in 2013. This was the forecast of consultancy company Forton International, a strategic partner for Bulgaria of global real estate company Cushman & Wakefield, cited by Investor.bg.
International corporations remain focused on optimising costs and, therefore, will continue to seek opportunities to service their businesses through outsourcing jobs to countries with lower taxes and labour costs, Sergey Koinov, CEO of Forton, commented. According to him, in Bulgaria, on the one hand, new corporate centres will be created that will service the international offices of the respective companies, and, on the other hand, Bulgarian outsourcing companies that work for external clients will also expand. We expect the most significant investments in the industrial sector from companies relocating their production to Bulgaria, in order to lower production costs, as well as from exports to international markets, Koinov added.
In the segment of industrial and logistics space, in 2013, the construction of a new 40,000 square metres of logistics space for rent is expected to begin. A major problem of the market, however, remains the lack of quality finished space. Limited volume will be partially offset by the availability of excess capacity in existing businesses," said Vladimir Gurdjieff, Head of Industrial and Logistics Space Department at Forton. According to him, the driving force of the market for industrial and logistics space next year will be investments in the automotive and electronics industries.
The segment of retail space was most interesting in 2012 because of the new wave of mall construction. Rents remained stable throughout the year, at an average level of €27 Euro per square metre in Sofia for mainstream shops with area ranging from 100 to 200 square metres and these are expected to remain unchanged in the first half of the following year.
In 2012, Galleria Bourgas and Bulgaria Mall increased retail space in Bulgarian malls by nearly 70,000 square metres to more than 627,000 square metres. All projects under construction at the moment, of which three are in Sofia and one in Bourgas, have a total lettable area of 206,500 square metres.
Another expansion factor for retailers, especially hypermarket chains, is infrastructure improvement in the capital city.
Source: www.klassa.bg
(18.12.2012)