Office demand slowed in the first quarter in Central and Eastern Europe, a trend that is also noticeable in Bucharest, where companies leased 51,300 square meters in the first three months, representing a 44% decrease compared to the same period last year, according to data from real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

In the case of Bucharest, consultants estimate an acceleration in demand in the second half of the year, when a series of major transactions are to be signed.
The vacancy rate in Bucharest continued its downward trend, reaching 13.6% (the lowest level in Q2 2021), a trend that will continue in the coming period considering that no large or medium-sized office buildings will be completed in Bucharest in 2025.

“We expect transaction activity to intensify in the second half of the year, as companies resume their expansion or relocation plans. In addition, the lack of significant deliveries in 2025 will contribute to a decrease in the vacancy rate and, in some areas, to an increase in rents,” commented Mădălina Cojocaru, Partner Office Agency Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

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”.

A theme raised consistently during the “Office Market Challenges and Opportunities” panel held at CEDER 2025 was the fact that the office market in Romania is facing significant regulatory challenges and uncertainty.

As Florian Nițu, Managing Partner of Popovici, Nițu, Stoica & Asociații, observed, “the high stakes are today […] in the various forces that are pushing toward deregulation, on one side, and overregulation on the other”. This tension is particularly evident in Bucharest, where the market is experiencing “a de facto construction ban, or, to put it mildly, very restrictive framework”.

A major source of uncertainty stems from the status of urban planning documents. Ioana Roman, Partner & Head of Real Estate at Filip & Company, pointed out the long-standing issue “with the ban on construction and the situation that we have with the annulment of the zonal plans”. While acknowledging a recent court decision that “reversed the annulment of the Sector 2 PUZ”, she questioned whether developers will “take the risk […] to obtain building permits and start development in this basically unpredictable scenario”.

The General Urbanism Plan (PUG) for Bucharest also remains problematic. Despite fundamental studies being finalised, Ioana Roman estimated that “we are looking at another two years at least for this to be actually approved”. Adinel Tudor, CEO of EVO Properties, was less optimistic, stating, “Most probably it will not […] be approved in the next two-three years”. He warned that “without a very clear plan for development of the city and with too much regulation, Bucharest is going to suffocate”.

Antoniu Panait, Managing Director of Vastint Romania, also noted that, by “having blocked the city from [a] development perspective […], Bucharest becomes non-competitive with other cities”.

Ioana Roman mentioned another complicating factor: “for the past […] almost two years now, we have an Urbanism Code in public debates. […] We want a simplified, streamlined process of permitting, we want predictability, we want flexibility”, but “the question remains whether our legislators will be able to find the correct balance between their interests and what concerns the private sector”. She also highlighted a practical challenge: the initial draft’s “very short transitionary period”, too short to implement the necessary changes.
The regulatory landscape is also evolving the relationship between private developers and the public sector.

Florian Nițu pointed to a “more obvious [and] pervasive interface, between the private and the public sector”, where regulators are “adding public interest elements into the regulation process”. This transforms the relationship into something “more complex and not only unilateral, but bilateral and constant”. Consequently, “an office project in itself must generate social value, must serve a public purpose”.

Panellists agreed that the market requires greater stability. Adinel Tudor noted that for investment, only three requirements exist: “returns, predictability and safety”, and currently, Bucharest “is only ticking one, maybe two of those”. He expressed a desire for “a political environment that would simply let businesses do their jobs”.

Andreea Cotiga, Head of Leasing Office at CPI Property Group Romania concluded: “we in the business environment […] would need a little bit more stability coming from the political sector, […] because otherwise these many opportunities that are there in the market will just transform in speculations”. The prevailing feeling among developers, as expressed by Antoniu Panait, was being “affected by the unforeseen things that are popping up each time”, making predictability paramount for future growth.