Colliers: 20 Sofia Buildings Dropouts of Office Space Market

The economic slowdown aside, the high share of unoccupied office space in Bulgaria's capital Sofia – 25.4% - is the result of the deficiencies of 20 office buildings, according to a survey of Colliers International Bulgaria.

Colliers' analysis shows that a high percentage of the unoccupied office space in Sofia is concentrated in several new buildings and in specific locations in the Bulgarian capital. Thus, 63% of the unoccupied office space in Sofia is focused in 20 buildings, which have only 19% of the total office space in the city.

The average occupancy rate in these 20 buildings is only 15%, Colliers said while not specifying the exact developments.

"A more in-depth analysis confirms our views of the market, namely, that most of office buildings will overcome the difficulties created by the economic slowdown. At the same time, office buildings with serious flaws such as bad infrastructure, inefficient design, and location, etc, will overcome their difficulties much slower, especially against the backdrop of the rising supply," explained Anton Slavchev, Office and Business Parks Manager at Colliers International.

The study of Colliers shows that if the 20 buildings with low occupancy are excluded, the unoccupied office space in Sofia will amount to only 11.5% of the total – which is similar to the occupancy rate registered at the end of 2008, right before the global financial and economic crisis tangibly affected the Bulgarian market.

"The segmentation of the market is becoming more and more visible. The office buildings in question will have to invest extreme efforts in order to succeed in the competition for new tenants," Slavchev said.