The market for office space in the country offers ideal opportunities for companies to finally optimise the space at their disposal, by offering higher quality at affordable prices, says Anton Slavchev, manager of Colliers International’s office space and business parks department in Bulgaria, quoted by Dnevnik.
 
The expert reckons that an increase in deals in forthcoming months, dictated by compromises between tenants and lenders, will result in increased demand. Price ranges in Sofia have already registered a drop as opposed to the end of 2008, reaching the 10-15 euro per sq m threshold. 
 
The reduction in value is attributed to two factors: firstly, the general decline in demand in light of the global economic downturn, and secondly, the larger supply on offer as a consequence of the ever increasing amount of completed construction on the market. The latter, added to already existing offices that were made vacant by companies departing as a result of poor business performance, has revealed new business opportunities.
 
According to Anton Slavchev, the price range will vary as dictated by the investors. Entrepreneurs, meanwhile, will be led by two factors – the various phases of projects’ completion and phases at which they fulfil their actual capacity.
 
"Investors have started realising that it’s not viable to have a building remaining vacant over the course of a year – so it's better to employ more flexible tactics to offset that loss," Slavchev said.
 
"Currently, we are operating with 15 companies who have latent demand for about 40 000 sq m of office area. This passive demand will be realised at a future stage, in accordance to the companies’ price-range expectations, and the availability of the product in the market," he said. 

Source: propertywisebulgaria.