The occupancy costs of office spaces represent, on average, between 3 and 4% of the turnover of services companies in Bucharest, and they may fall even below 2%, in some cases, according to an Cushman & Wakefield Echinox analysis.
The analysis takes into account the results from 2019 achieved by companies in various fields, such as software development, advertising agencies, IT consulting, engineering and technical consulting, business support services, accounting and financial audit, architecture or real estate agencies.
The analyzed companies, whose revenues are mainly generated from work performed in office spaces, achieved in 2019 a total turnover of 8 billion euros, with about 112,000 employees and an average productivity of 70,000 euros per employee.
The occupancy cost of the office spaces for these companies, consisting of rent, service and utilities tax, was estimated at 255 million euros per year, the equivalent of about 190 euros / employee / month.
In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which imposed a series of social distancing rules to limit the spread of the virus, companies implemented procedures for working from home for most employees, reducing the physical occupancy of offices to the level of 35 – 40%.
Given that the new working model has come up with a number of challenges, but also with benefits, most companies are currently analyzing how they will operate on the medium and long term, while they carefully monitor the productivity evolution and reanalyze the occupancy costs.