Romania’s modern industrial and logistic facilities reached 4.72 million square meters at the end of the first half of the year, up by 5% compared to the corresponding period of 2019.
This represents over 9% of the stock figure for the biggest 17 CEE economies, and though it could exceed 5 million sqm by the end of 2020, there is still signficant room to grow, according to Colliers International’s exCEEding Borders report.
Romania’s stock of modern industrial and logistic spaces has grown threefold since 2015, but there is still a significant gap between Romania and other CEE markets.
In the Czech Republic, modern industrial and logistic spaces are at roughly 9 million square meters, while in Poland are around 19,6 million square meters. This means that on a per capita basis, Romania’s stock of modern storages is 4x below Czechia’s and 2x below Poland’s.
Around 120.000 square meters in new modern industrial and logistics spaces are estimated to have come online in the first semester of 2020 throughout Romania, which was a decrease compared to the same period of 2019, when developers delivered 300.000 square meters.
But the second half of the year is seen to be much more active, with nearly 300.000 square meters in new deliveries expected, with more than 60% located in the outskirts of Bucharest.
The total leasing transaction volume in Romania at the end of June reached 250.000 square meters, new agreements dominated the leasing structure and constituted 81%. Bucharest accounted for 35% or a total of 87,500 square meters of the leased industrial and logistic space, and the most significant share of deals were new agreements and renegotiations, which constituted 55% and 37% respectively.
Tenant structure in terms of sectors in the Romanian market was dominated by retail/FMCG sector, which generated 50% of all deals, while in Bucharest it was led by 3PL/logistics (35%) and light production/manufacturing (33%).
Profi’s new logistic facilities in Timișoara and Craiova were the most important developments, covering 115,500 square meters.
Rents for prime warehouse spaces remained broadly stable this year, between 3,8-3,9 euro per square meter for prime industrial & logistic spaces around Bucharest and around 3,7-3,9 in other hubs around the country.
For comparison, in the area of Warsaw, Sofia or Budapest the rents amount to 5 euro per square meter. The average lease lengths in Romania are 3-5 years in case of logistics / warehouse premises and 5-7 years in case of production/manufacturing.
