The volume of gross occupancy of office real estate in Kyiv in 2019 increased by 17% compared to 2018, to 170,000 square meters, which is a record for the past 11 years (since 2007), according to CBRE Ukraine international consulting company (Kyiv).
“The macroeconomic situation in Ukraine improved significantly in 2019, despite the political uncertainty surrounding the elections. The volume of real GDP showed a positive trend with an indicator of plus 3.3% year-on-year in 2019 (according to preliminary data from the NBU). The Business Expectations Index for the 12 months decreased by 7.9 percentage points, to 118.7 as of the fourth quarter of 2019. However, with a decrease in unemployment by 0.4 percentage points year-on-year and the rapid growth of the IT cluster (approximately more by 20% in 2019), the demand for office space continued to grow,” the report says.
According to the company, a significant share in the structure of gross absorption (44%) was made by IT and telecommunications companies (more by 4%). Companies engaged in manufacturing, industry and energy ranked second with a 25% share.
“The growth in demand by IT sector companies over the past five years is explained not only by the rapid development of industry in Ukraine, but also by the specifics of the industry companies. Most IT professionals provide services to international companies on the terms of outsourcing or out-staffing and are mainly involved in temporary projects, which determines the mobility of workers, requires flexibility in office space and expands the demand for co-working,” CBRE said.
Thus, the segment of co-working and full-service offices amounted to 12% of the gross absorption structure. The rest in the structure were represented by companies from the financial sector and banks (9%), the FMCG sector (3%) and other segments, which together accounted for 7% of the total gross absorption.
