Office spaces see rise in demand and rates

Office building sale prices in Greece are growing at the fastest pace of the last 10 years, as competition among institutional investors sends rates ever higher.

According to the latest revised figures published by the Bank of Greece, office spaces in Attica saw their prices grow 8.4 percent on an annual basis in the first half of 2018. Across Greece the increase came to 7.4 percent, with a rise of 2.6 percent rise in Thessaloniki and 7.1 in the rest of the country.

Property market officials attribute the rise in rates to the limited number of top-level buildings, in a period when demand for the lease of such spaces is growing steadily.

Estimates by the Cushman & Wakefield Proprius property services firm suggest that in the next two to three years the annual absorption of new spaces will increase to 150,000 square meters, from 70,000-100,000 sq.m. in previous years. Therefore, buying interest by foreign and domestic investors is not being met, thus sending prices higher.

Sector professionals estimate that in 2018 the volume of commercial property transactions amounted around 450,500 million euros, though this could have been far higher had there been a sufficient stock for sale.