The volume of industrial and logistics spaces leased in the first half of the year totalled 240,700 square meters, more than twice the level recorded in the same period last year, of about 100,800 square meters. Most of the demand came from automotive parts producers, which may shift more and more of the output towards e-car components.

Bucharest attracted most of the demand for industrial and logistics space in the country, namely 43% (approximately 103,600 square meters), followed by Slatina (62,000 square meters), Oradea (34,000 square meters) and Timisoara, with almost 22,300 square meters traded.

JLL recorded in the first semester a market share of almost 30% of the volume of industrial and logistics lease transactions by real estate consultants. Given the developments in the first half of the year, JLL’s expectations for 2019 demand are optimistic, so we expect a volume of transactions comparable to the one recorded over the past 3 years, around 500,000 square meters per year.

“But we have to consider two aspects that can influence the level of demand. The first is that the industrial market has reported a record take-up over the last three years, especially amid the expansion of retailers and logistics. The second element is that most of the logistics companies have already consolidated their operations to meet the increased volume of goods generated by the rise in consumption in recent years,” said Costin Banica, head of Industrial Department JLL Romania.

However, we may see an increase in demand for manufacturing and industrial premises, especially from companies active in the automotive sector.

Noteworthy that over the first half, more than half of the demand (121,600 square meters) came from manufacturing companies, most of them in the automotive field. “The automotive sector is experiencing a transition to the production of components for electric vehicles. Romania could take advantage of this transition and could attract major investments from big companies for this kind of production premises. In this context, we anticipate an increase in the demand for production areas in 2020-2022,” added Banica.