Colliers: If there had not been a global crisis, a local crisis would have appeared

“If it had not been the global crisis, there would have been a major crisis of supply on the real estate market in three-five years, because developments ignored market demand. The goal was selling a product and not creating added value. In this time of crisis, demand is affected, which leads to blockage on the real estate market. We must learn from the global crisis to avoid a future local crisis,” Georgescu added.

The main problem of commercial projects, such as offices, malls and industrial-logistics spaces, is the impossibility of obtaining financing, considering that banks are demanding that 50 percent of these projects be pre-leased as of the beginning of construction, which lasts about two years.

“As long as companies look for short-term solutions, for some three-six months, it will be extremely difficult to find those interested in pre-renting some spaces two years in advance, as banks are now demanding,” the company official said.

Taking into account that multinational companies, the main clients of commercial projects, have frozen their expansion plans, Colliers officials estimate an 8-10 percent increase in the non-occupancy rate of office space in 2009, from three percent at the end of 2008.