The number of transactions in the Moscow office market has fallen by 37% since the beginning of the year

In the first nine months of 2022, the total number of deals concluded in the Moscow office real estate market decreased by 37% compared to the same period in 2021. Such data was announced by Karina Anaevskaya, director of the office real estate department at Nikoliers, at the conference “Re:Location – offices, coworking spaces, flexible offices”organized by Kommersant Publishing House.

“We have a total of 1-3 quarters of lease and purchase transactions – somewhere under 600 thousand square meters. m., and refuseniks, if you can call them that, turned out to be about 90 thousand square meters. m. In general, the dynamics of new purchase and lease transactions has dipped quite a lot, ”said Ms. Anaevskaya. According to her, a significant reduction in business activity by more than 1.5 times compared to the results of nine months of last year is caused by the current turbulent economic and political situation on the market.

As the expert noted, a sharp increase in transactions for the abandonment of office space is recorded. Basically, this trend comes from foreign companies that have decided to stop their operations in Russia. “As for the rejection of office space, one third is occupied by Russian companies, and two thirds by Western ones. We traditionally talk about the outflow of Western companies, but we must pay attention to the fact that Russian companies also suffered, so they need to be supported,” concluded Ms. Anaevskaya.

As before wrote “Kommersant”, according to the results of the third quarter, the premium segment of the office real estate market showed a serious decline: almost 15% of such areas were empty in expensive business centers. Among the main factors in the growth of vacancy, experts called the departure of foreign tenants.