Real estate: Medical and pharmaceutical companies rented biggest office area in first 9 months of 2021

Medical and pharmaceutical  companies rented the biggest office area for medical clinics, hospitals or  headquarters in the first 9 months of 2021, about 23% of the market, exceeding  companies in IT&C which cumulated 22%, according to a specialized analysis released on Monday.   According to ESOP Consulting there was an increase of the overall demand from  medical companies, which had transactions for 31,540 sq.m office areas in  Bucharest, while 10,280 sq.m were rented in 2020.   Among companies that rented  new areas this year there are: Victoria Medical Center, Ares Excellency Center, Trident Center, Provita Hospital, Medicover Hospital, PMEG Medical Equipment Center, Alcon and Astellas.    “At the end of 2019, before the pandemic,  50% of all office areas rented in Bucharest were for employees of IT&C companies, this field ranking first in renting. In the first three quarter of the ongoing year, IT&C field was overcome by the medical field, demand for such areas growing substantially. The general sanitary crisis generated by Covid 19 pandemic created the need for more medical services and products and we think this is seen in  the increase of demand coming from medical companies. At the same time,the need to work from home determined many IT companies to adopt hybrid work, so that relocation or extension plans for office areas were delayed. We think there will be relocations of IT companies in 2022-2023 when the pandemic will drop significantly in intensity, in order to offer employees  office areas adapted to hybrid work and in buildings which have implemented measures reducing the risks generated by Covid 19”, said Alexandru Petrescu, managing partner of ESOP Consulting /CORFAC International.    Centralized data also show that before the pandemic, between 2017 amd 2019, demand from IT&C, BPO and SSC companies dominated the office are rental market. Later, in 2020, the office demand for employees in the three activity domains dropped, while this year it will maintain at a level similar with last year.   According to the source, last year, the IT&C, BPO and SSC segment was reduced in volume and share in overall transactions  which dropped from half to a third of total transactions. Companies in the professional service domain grew by 16% of rented area and financial domain (14%) and medical and pharmaceutical ones (10%). For the first part of the ongoing year, demand coming from IT&C companies wad close to that of medical companies, and the second part of 2021 was higher by 1%.  In this respect, medical and pharmaceutical companies contracted 23% of office renting areas as against IT&C with a share of 22%.   ESOP is one of the reference companies in the real estate market in Romania, an affiliated member of CORFAC International since 2013, an alliance of real estate companies offering quality services at local, national and international levels.