Tenants have snapped up cool offices
In the second quarter, the Moscow office market, which is currently in the hands of landlords, has seen an unusual revival. It attracted the attention of not only large developers previously involved in housing construction, but also small businesses and private investors.
As Ekaterina Belova, head of the office space department at IBC Real Estate, said, several important trends gained momentum in the Moscow office market in the second quarter. The most important thing — Competition for high-quality offices with finishing has sharply intensified. In the first half of 2024, about 800 thousand square meters were bought and rented in Moscow. m of offices. Of these, 160 thousand sq. m was purchased, and 640 thousand sq. m. m — rented out.
«Now the Moscow office market is in the hands of the landlord. There is great demand for quality premises. Therefore, owners are extremely reluctant to make concessions in negotiations with tenants,” — reported «MK» Belova. According to her, the share of vacant office space on average in the Moscow office market in January-June 2024 decreased by 4.4 percentage points, to 6.5%. At the same time, the volume of office commissioning in Moscow in the first half of 2024 tripled — up to 330 thousand sq. m, compared to the same period last year. Another 430 thousand sq. m. m can be introduced in the second half of the year.
“In response to high business activity, building owners continue to raise rates,” the analyst noted. According to her data, the average annual rental rate for class A was 26.7 thousand rubles/sq. m, for class B+ — 21.6 thousand rubles/sq. m. Today, government agencies, real estate companies and the IT sector are the most active in renting high-quality offices. K key popular business districts (Central, Moscow-City, Leningradsky Corridor, Paveletskaya) will soon be joined by Khodynka and Savelovsky railway station.
According to Evgeny Ovchinnikov, Director of the Department of Real Estate, Construction and Operation of OZON, a good quality product will always be in demand not only in the center of the capital, but also in locations outside the Moscow Ring Road.
In the second quarter, thanks to the efforts of experts from the Big Five» classification has been updated on the Moscow market. A new Prime class has appeared. Currently only six business centers meet its criteria (location, ownership of the facility by one owner, stricter compliance of the premises with technical requirements).
The youngest segment of service offices (200-300 sq.m.) is gaining momentum. Today, this format accounts for only 2% of the total volume of the Moscow office market (398 thousand sq. m of high-quality office space and 56 thousand jobs). “If earlier coworking spaces and service offices were considered by small companies as a temporary solution, now they are considered a permanent solution,” — Belova emphasized.
More and more owners of small and medium-sized companies with available funds prefer not to rent, but to buy service offices. Such transactions allow you to increase the value of assets and look confidently into the future against the backdrop of ongoing geopolitical turbulence.
«In addition to small businesses, private investors have also paid attention to the office market,” — said commercial director of O1 Properties Pavel Barbashev. In his opinion, they are driven not only by the desire to diversify investment portfolio. The fact is that income from renting out Moscow offices today is much higher than from apartment rentals. As a rule, they buy out lots in business centers under construction at the foundation pit stage.
«Developers who previously specialized only in housing construction, In order to increase the marginality of projects, they have become more often interested in projects that have office space. First of all, they are interested in class A offices,” — noted STONE commercial management director Kristina Nedrea. According to her, since the beginning of this year, the cost of building a square meter of high-quality office real estate has increased by 16%, which is caused by a labor shortage and rising prices for building materials. The cost of facades has especially increased. “New projects that are just entering the market include new construction costs. In class A you can no longer find prices below 300 thousand rubles. per sq. m», — added Nedrya.
At the end of last June, the total supply of class A offices amounted to 5.6 million sq. m. m. The current runoff is represented mainly by properties sold for rent — 72% of the total volume or 4 million sq. m. But the supply structure may soon change. “At the current high cost of bank financing, developers prefer build offices for sale in Moscow. The number of rental-oriented projects is small,” — noted the head of the real estate customer relations department Bank «Sber» Arsen Ohanjanyan.
This year, the demand for the purchase of office space under construction will continue, — I'm sure the expert. Most of the offices will be completed before the facility is commissioned into operation, so we should not expect an increase in the share of vacant office space. According to the analyst, in the period from 2024 to 2027, 2.5 million square meters will be commissioned in the capital. m of office space. 2.2 million sq. m of which — offices for sale in blocks and as a whole (1.5 million sq. m.) and owned headquarters (0.7 million sq. m.). If this forecast is realized by the end of 2027, properties for sale will account for almost half of the total supply in class A — 46%.