Monday, 25 August 2025
The Bucharest office market is increasingly integrating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations, driven by both regulatory pressures and evolving tenant expectations.
During the “Office Market Challenges and Opportunities” panel held at CEDER 2025, Adinel Tudor, CEO of EVO Properties, raised the issue of the legislation dictated by the European Union: “all [the] pieces of legislation that are either in force or are about to be in force, that set mandatory criteria for building, owning, reporting and whatnot.”
This regulatory push is met with the market adapting, with many stakeholders acknowledging ESG’s growing importance. The panellists noted that Romania’s existing office stock offers a degree of advantage, being “one of the youngest office building stocks throughout [the] European Union”, reducing the need for extensive retrofitting compared to other markets.
Andreea Cotiga, Head of Leasing Office at CPI Property Group Romania, told the audience that “companies have adopted and are still adopting green building certifications”, and there’s interest in “retrofitting their existing structures in order to meet stricter energy efficiency standards”. She added, “around 90% of the new office buildings in Bucharest and approximately 70% of the older buildings, older than 15 years, hold a green certification”, demonstrating a significant commitment.
Valentin Neagu, Managing Director of Crosspoint Real Estate, described a “two-speed market”, where some landlords merely “look to tick the box to meet the threshold of regulatory ESG requirements”, a form of greenwashing focusing solely on certifications. Others “do look at the long term and do invest in ESG-related platforms”. A key challenge for the latter is the Return on Investment (ROI), as investing in long-term ESG benefits doesn’t always align with immediate leasing demands. Antoniu Panait, Managing Director of Vastint Romania, pointed out a disincentive: “The taxes are very high for the very highly certified buildings, because we invest more. So, it’s a little bit, let’s say prohibitive to invest more in very efficient buildings”.
Maria Jianu, Leasing Director at Speedwell stated: “Indeed, […] they’re very complicated times, in terms of politics, and it’s a lot of pressure we’re facing. The thing that keeps us moving is indeed the fact that there is still a very big demand […] for futureproof offices, for buildings and for projects that understand each aspect of the ESG framework, including the social aspect”. Andreea Cotiga echoed this, noting “well-being has become some sort of a strategic differentiator for attracting employees back to the office”, pushing landlords to evolve from “just a space provider to becoming an experienced operator or a service partner”.
Ultimately, market forces are expected to drive further ESG adoption. Valentin Neagu predicted that “those landlords and investors who will not pick up on well-being, who will not pick up on ESG regulations, I think that the future tenants and the lenders will make the decisions for them”.
