The most active segment in the first half of the year was the office one with a 65% market share out of transacted volumes, followed by the retail and the hospitality sectors with shares of 17% and 6%, respectively. More than two thirds of the transactions were closed in Bucharest. 

“Office buildings, the most traded asset class during the last four years, maintain their attractiveness amid the gradual return of employees to their offices, with strong interest also being shown towards retail parks or big box stores,” said Cristi Moga, Head of Capital Markets at Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

The biggest single transaction was S Immo’s purchase of Expo Business Park, a 41,500 sqm office project in Bucharest, from Portland Trust for an estimated price of more than €110 million. 

The prime yields stabilized in H1, with only the industrial and logistics segment recording a 25 bp compression. Prime office yields in Bucharest stood at 6.50% for office and retail projects, while for industrial projects they stood at 7.00%. 

“Having euro-denominated rents, lease contracts, and indexation coefficients applicable to the European Union inflation, real estate assets with an institutional profile, which benefit from a mix of blue-chip tenants, will continue to attract the interest of local and international investors,” added Moga.