Colliers start new wave of office development in Zagreb
01 April 2008
Colliers International Croatia says that a new wave of office development in Zagreb is underway, prompted by falling vacancy rates in recently constructed Class A offices. The findings come in the international property consultants' new Zagreb Office Market Overview for the first half of 2008. The latest Colliers research says that vacancy rates in recently constructed Class A offices fell continuously through 2007 and have now reached a level of only 7%, a rate which is expected to fall to 5% over the course of this year.
New Colliers research for the whole of Europe shows that the lowest vacancy rates are in Kiev (0.8%), Vilnius (1.3%) and Bucharest (1.6%). By contrast Frankfurt has a rate of 15% and Budapest has a rate of 12.2%.
The current stock of Class A and Class B standard office stock in Zagreb comes to some 500,000sqm. Out of this around 280,000sqm is Class A and 220,000sqm is Class B. Over 95% of Class A office stock comes from projects which came onto the market in the 2006/2007 period.
Future office projects will need to offer additional value to the consumer, for example 'smart buildings', in order to attract and retain tenants. There will be increasing pressure for new buildings to conform to green building standards as sustainability becomes a major issue.