The office real estate market in Kiev is recovering, the number of requests and transactions from IT-companies, nonprofit and international organizations has increased, CEO of allbc Valentin Lenchenko told Interfax-Ukraine.
The expert reminded that for many business centers last year was a year of tenants’ retention on any terms.
“The main task at the beginning of the fall was to survive the winter with tenants. On any terms. The main thing is that they paid utilities and OREH (often not in full). But with the advent of the blackout migration began, people who used to work from home, moved to co-working spaces with diesel generators and Internet”, – said Lenchenko.
According to him, as a result, offices in the capital during the blackout were filled almost completely. A temporary rush was created, which led to the opening of new locations. However, by January, when things stabilized and many had resolved the issue of household power plants, the situation was back to previous levels.
“Newcomers continue to recruit residents, but demand has dropped significantly. Demand is still high for finished offices – with renovations, furniture, diesel generators and shelter,” the expert stressed.
He noted a positive systemic trend in recent months – the activation of tenants.
“Many IT companies that relocated to Western Ukraine, began to return home to Kiev. And they are not the only IT companies – there are a lot of requests and deals from non-profit and international organizations,” Lenchenko said.
He gave an example of recent transactions of allbc. An IT-company has asked to find a ready office for more than 200 employees; in the process of searching and negotiating the lease agreement, it turned out that a lot more employees want to come back to Kiev. As a result, this company has rented two offices with total area of about 4 ths sq.m. instead of the office with 2 ths sq.m. Another IT-company recently rented an 800 square meters office with furniture and repairs in Podol Business Center.
But in general, according to the expert, the main tenants and transactions request was observed on the format of about 200 square meters. “As a rule it is medium-sized business which adapts to the current conditions or optimizes the space”, – he says.
Another trend is that large tenants with large equipped offices on the right bank have started asking to rent offices/workspaces in co-working spaces on the left bank.
This provides comfortable spaces for employees who prefer to work closer to home for safety reasons. “The criteria are the same: with repairs, furniture, a diesel generator and shelter,” Lenchenko stressed.
He also singled out a separate category of potential tenants with whom, despite high vacancy rates, most landlords do not want to contact. “We’re talking about so-called “musicians,” call centers that play music loudly. Now they call themselves IT people, marketing people and even agrarians, but as a rule, they are scam artists. The average area rented by them is from 500 to 2,000 square meters, but given the trail they leave behind, they do not want to do business with them,” stressed Lenchenko.
The expert also noted that despite the war, there are also deals on the market for the purchase and sale of office space/buildings. “There are buyers in the market. They usually come with a discount of 30% to 50%. Foreign investors who believe in winning are already starting to look at buying, because they understand: now is the right time,” he says.
allbc.info is a service for renting or buying offices in business centers and free-standing buildings in Ukrainian cities (Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Odessa, and Lviv).
