Porto offices on the rise, closing 1st semester with 38% increase in occupancy

In the first six months of 2020, and even with the lock-down of Covid19, the Office Market of Greater Porto recorded a 38% increase in occupancy volume, compared to the same period last year 2019.

Although the second half of the semester was guided by the pandemic context, the office market in Greater Porto remained dynamic, showing positive signs, such as the increase in large operations and increased demand from international companies. Two thirds of the developed transactions involved multinationals and 38% of them were motivated by the arrival of new companies in the region, which confirms the attractiveness status that Porto has at international level in attracting new players.

Combined with these good dynamics that the sector has been registering since 2015, there is a high demand for spaces that exceeds the current supply available in the region. At present the Grande Porto has in pipeline about 86,000 m2, whose entry into stock is expected to occur until the end of 2021 and which will come to some extent closer the relationship between supply and demand, however, still insufficient to bridge the existing gap.

Area expansion where motivated by 50% of office take-up

In the first half of the year, the activity in the office market of Grande Porto recorded a total of 24 transactions and 28,381 m2 of total area in the region. Compared to the same period, there was an increase of 38% in the volume of contracted area (7,881 m2 more were placed in total), which translates into an increase in the average area contracted per operation, which went from 820 m2 (2019) to 1,183 m2 (2020).

The city of Porto absorbs about 65% of the area, with boavista's Central Business District (CBD) leading. As in the same period of 2019, cbd is the so-called "hot zone" of the office market, recording the highest number of operations (eight in total) and the largest volume of absorbed area, with about 33% (9,347 m2). Matosinhos follows, with 20% of the located area, and in reverse, the cities of Vila Nova de Gaia and Maia, have had less area absorption in the first semester with 10% and 6%, respectively.

The main motivating factor of companies for the search for new office spaces in Grande Porto is focused mainly on the reason of area expansion, corresponding to 50% of the take-up. In the first quarter, this trend contrasted with the data for the same period of last year, where area expansion was only 17% of the office take-ups.

The remaining 50% is related to the change of facilities (32%) and the installation of new companies in the region with more 18%.

Source: Diário Imobiliario