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The increase in demand of office space in Sofia in 2015 has been carried over into the first six months of 2016, which means that the office market is operating at a very high speed. The newly-formed companies in Sofia were and still are looking for an office space of 200 sq.m, while the companies that have been on the market for a while are in search of offices between 700 and 800 sq.m. The usual tenants are companies that operate in the financial, outsourcing, pharmacy and IT sectors, which mainly serve clients from abroad.

This increased demand for office space increased the occupancy levels in the office buildings, especially in those business centers with good location and excellent transportation links. Currently Sofia city has several high-class office projects that will soon to become operational and that will increase the supply of new offices in the city. The rental levels of the available office space of class A in Sofia are between 10 and 13 Euro/sq.m. Serious changes in the rent levels are not expected, as all landlords are willing to sign long-term deals. The prognosis of the real estate companies is for this high demand office tendency to continue in the months ahead. The office market in Sofia is expected to be quite busy in the next two years.

The Prime Minister of Bulgaria sees the lack of Bulgarian’s accession to Schengen as an injustice and hopes this will end soon. He expressed his thoughts after a meeting with the Prime Minister of Romania, in early June. The Bulgarian Prime Minister further expressed his gratitude to his Romanian colleague for the excellent estimate that Bulgaria received.

Boyko Borissov further stated that Romania and Bulgaria are absolutely ready to join the travel-free zone of Schengen and that they do even better than many countries that are already members of the Schengen zone.

The Prime Minister of Bulgaria stated that the country wants a no visa regime for Canada and the United States, but most of all Bulgarians want their interests to be protected. This includes traveling with no visas in the Schengen area as well. He further stated that Romania and Bulgaria have already invited the Canadian ministers to visit the two countries and to get acquainted with the Schengen system.

The Information Technology industry in Bulgaria is among the fastest growing ones in the country for more than three decades already. Today, this industry enjoys a two-digit rate according to the European Information Technology Observatory and this grow is expected to continue. Five years ago, Bulgaria has been ranked as the most competitive country in the IT Industry in Southeastern Europe.

Currently Bulgaria is among the leading countries with multinational corporations opening offices in Sofia – among which being CISCO, VMware, SAP, HP, Atos, ProSyst, etc. This means that these companies can find in Bulgaria excellent technologies, well-prepared professionals and Class A Sofia offices at affordable prices. Not to mention that Bulgaria has the second fastest broadband internet.

The offices that these IT companies are looking for are spacious, with many onsite facilitates, and great location covered by the public transport network of Sofia city. And since the average monthly salary in the software industry is considerably low compared to the rest of the countries, Bulgaria seems like a great place for outsourcing the business that the IT companies have. The IT industry in Bulgaria is quite promising, with potential to yield high returns in the years to come.

Right after the active 2015 on the office market in Sofia, the real estate experts gave prognosis for dynamic 2016 and the situation on the office market has proven them right. Despite all the new office premises that have started in 2015 and 2016, the demand for available office premises of the highest class will still be serious. Currently, the available offices on the market in Sofia are approximately 22 400 sq.m, which is quite insufficient for the number of international companies that want to open offices in Sofia and the ones that are already here and wish to expand and thus relocate to more spacious office areas.

According to the plans of the big construction companies, 80 000 sq.m of office premises are to be completed by the end of this year and another 240 000 sq.m of offices are planned to be ready in 2017. Not all of these office premises will be in Sofia, however, as some of them will be based in the cities of Bourgas and Plovdiv. The companies that are looking to invest in the office segment in Bulgaria are from the IT and the Outsourcing sphere, various call centers, consultant and shared services companies.

More than one fifth of the office premises that are under construction in Sofia are already rented, mainly by companies in the outsourcing industry. The international companies that want to make business in Bulgaria are focused on Sofia, but some are also looking towards the cities of Plovdiv, Bourgas, Varna and Rousse. The drop in the vacancy of office premises is another indicator of the office market in Sofia and the increased demand for quality office space in the capital of Bulgaria. The rental levels of the high-quality offices of class A are between 12 and 14 Euro/sq.m, however the number of discounts and special offers has dropped.

During the recent years Bulgaria has received several awards, among which Destination of the Year by the European Outsourcing Association and the UK Outsourcing Association. Another great recognition comes from the fact that Sofia city was chosen to host the annual conference Leadership Summit & Awards 2016, during which it became clear that the quality projects of class A that answer the needs and the requirements of the international companies will strongly differentiate from the other offices on the market.

The supply of high-quality office premises in Sofia has increased with more than 5 % in the last six months, reaching approximately 1 900 000 sq.m. This became possible as the new offices of 79 500 sq.m. of Capital Ford business center were added to the number of the available offices in the capital Sofia. The offices of class A that are on demand are usually rented by international companies working in the sphere of services, real estate, IT, outsourcing and pharmaceutical sphere.

The prognosis on the office market sector are for stable and serious demand for offices of the highest quality in Sofia for the year ahead. The rental levels of the office premises vary between 12 and 14 Euro/sq.m depending on the location and the available facilities. The interest towards Sofia and Bulgaria in general on the part of the companies and investors is quite serious. In the next two years, the offices in Bulgaria that are planned to be constructed are as follows – 80 000 sq.m in 2016 and 240 000 sq.m in 2017.