The Office Market in Sofia in the Period April – July 2014

The office market in Sofia is characterized with limited supply of office premises and increased levels of rented office premises in the second quarter of 2014. The driving force behind the demand of new offices in Sofia are the new international companies that are planning to outsource their business in Bulgaria. These companies are mainly from the IT sector and they are yet to search for new, more spacious and comfortable office premises in Sofia.

In the middle of 2014 the available office premises in Sofia were around 1.68 million sq.m., since no new office buildings of class A and B were completed until July 2014. The office projects in Sofia that are in the pipeline are being built according to their plans. Approximately 21 300 sq.m of office centers class A and B are expected to be completed by the end of the year. Almost half of the office premises however are already rented out.

The Sofia office premises that have been rented in the period April – July 2014 were 37 500 sq.m, which is more than half of the office premise area that has been rented out for the same period in 2013 and 27 % more than the rented Sofia offices in the period January – March 2014. Besides the companies from the IT sector, the other industries that show interest in renting Sofia offices include companies from the financial and the energy sector. The available percentage of office premises in best new business centers in Sofia of the highest class AA is only 7 %. These projects are positioned along Bulgaria Blvd. and near Sofia Airport.