Last year, according to the consultants, the most dynamic zone was the ‘Emerging Zone”, with a total of 27,742m² of transactions compared to 10,898m² in the previous year.. Rental agreements for above 5,000m² registered in the Torres de Lisboa were principally responsible for this result, as well as the Banco Santander project for its own space, a total 9,800m².
The number of finished projects on the market was 23.7% lower than in 2015, a total of 1966. The greatest decreases were in the Parque das Nações and in the Corredor Oeste, 65.8% and 24.3%, respectively; a phenomenon which Worx justifies due to a lack of supply, in the first example, and the difficulty in moving available supply which is used (in the case of the Western Corridor). Moving buildings was the principle reason given for the uptake of space.
In the opinion of Pedro Salema Garção, Head of Worx Agency, “Our market is sought after increasingly by international firms, especially by TMT´s & Utilities and Service Industries, for which it is absolutely necessary that their installations are a true reflection of their brand, and that they efficiently serve the occupational needs that the business”.
In general, the entry of new office stock onto the 2016 market was “diminutive”, this being “the main justifying factor for there being no significant changes in the amounts of take up and the number of projects registered through the year”, explains the consultancy. Consequently, the average value of prime rents should remain at 18.5 euros/m²/month.
Pedro Salema Garção finished off by saying, “For 2017, the addition of approximately 58,000 m² of already occupied office supply is expected. It is important to underline that the supply market still does not meet the level of demand, a worrying factor for this year. A large percentage of upcoming projects already have pre-arranged rental contracts, and purely speculative development is, at present, practically non-existent. If this situation does not reverse in the short term, the appeal of Lisbon’s office market could be compromised”, warns the specialist.