Increase in rental activity on the Bratislava office market in Q2 2010

2010-08-18

In the second quarter of 2010, only three office projects were completed in Bratislava, two in the city centre and one in the suburbs. Their overall area came to 32,000 m², according to the Bratislava Research Forum (the BRF), which consists of the property consultancies Cushman & Wakefield, CB Richard Ellis and Colliers International in Slovakia. The largest completed project during the period in question was River Park on the banks of the Danube, which added about 29,000 m² to the city office stock. At the end of June 2010, the total stock of office space in Bratislava was 1.37m m², according to the BRF. Between April and June 2010, leases involving approximately 47,000 m² of office space were concluded, almost three times the amount of the equivalent period last year. In total, an area of approximately 70,000 m² of office space was rented in Bratislava during H1 2010. In the second quarter of this year, the banking and financing industry rented the most substantial amount of office space (11,900 m²), and were followed by professional services (10,450 m²) and industry and construction (8,400 m²). The most prevalent kind of transactions remained leases of up to 500 m², which accounted, in Q2 2010, for about 61% of total rented space. The vacancy rate on the Bratislava office market was reduced to 13.6% in Q2 2010 from 14.2% during previous quarters. The lowest vacancy rate in Q2 this year, 9.9%, was that of the Petrzalka district.