Offices remain without tenants – Kommersant

The withdrawal of foreign business from the Russian Federation and the desire of some Russian companies in the IT industry and Internet commerce to reduce costs during the crisis have seriously affected the owners of office real estate. According to various estimates, over the past year, lease agreements in Moscow business centers with a total area of ​​​​up to 329 thousand square meters were terminated ahead of schedule. m. However, in the form of penalties for premature termination of lease contracts, office owners could receive a total of up to 5 billion rubles. Market participants expect the situation to stabilize by the end of 2023.

From April 2022 to March 2023, 202.4 thousand sq. m of quality space, calculated for “Kommersant” in Ricci. This is ten times more than from April 2021 to March 2022. According to CORE.XP, over the past year, the volume of such transactions has tripled, to 329,000 sq. m. m. The CMWP notes that in 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, contracts for the lease of 145 thousand square meters were terminated ahead of schedule. m.

The sharp increase in the vacant space in Moscow business centers is associated with the departure of international companies from the Russian market: according to Ricci, they accounted for 71% of refusals to rent space. Another 29% are Russian companies, mainly from the IT industry and e-commerce, adds Ricci | Offices” Dmitry Zhidkov.

For example, in the Delta Plaza business center, operated by Accent Capital, at the beginning of 2022, 70% of all leased space was occupied by foreign companies, but after February 24, 2022, six such tenants terminated the contracts, freeing up more than 20% of the space, says the manager Ekaterina Kryukova’s office real estate assets. According to her, after foreign companies sold their business in the Russian Federation to management or a third party, the new owners reduced the space occupied by the office.

Russian companies, according to Mr. Zhidkov, abandoned extra space after optimizing their business due to the economic crisis. We are talking mainly about local companies that participated in international projects, adds Dmitry Klapsha, managing partner of Remain.

It is almost impossible to terminate the lease agreements ahead of schedule without penalties. NF Group partner Maria Zimina explains that companies leaving offices ahead of time could pay 50-90% of the amount specified in the contract in the form of fines. In general, the owners of business centers due to such fines could receive a total of 2.5 billion rubles. and even more, says Dmitry Klapsha. Dmitry Zhidkov estimates this amount at 4-5 billion rubles. However, according to the expert, some tenants, trying to avoid paying fines for early termination of contracts, offered their former office space for sublease. By October 2022, the total supply of offices for sublease in Moscow reached 203,000 sq. m. m, which is almost seven times more than a year earlier, calculated in the NF Group.

Now the owners of business centers have become more cautious in their approach to concluding new contracts, taking into account the risks of unreliability of tenants. They began to look for replacements for international companies that had not yet left the Russian market and had not even announced it yet, says Mr. Klapsha. Property owners are now trying to insure themselves by prescribing specific penalties for early withdrawal from the contract, says Ekaterina Kryukova. Although now, she adds, the situation on the market is changing in favor of tenants: as a rule, contracts are drawn up for shorter periods, and exit conditions are softened.

Dmitry Zhidkov expects that by the end of 2023 tenants will vacate another 15,000 sq. m. Similar transactions this year, according to the forecasts of the deputy director of office real estate department Nikoliers Elena Medushushskaya, will be very few, as there are only a few companies that have not yet decided on office optimization or leaving the Russian market.

Daria Andrianova