Portugal’s office segment up 6.9% in Q1

Despite the Covid-19 crisis, Portugal’s office sector was sitting pretty in the first quarter of 2020 with a 6.9% increase in take-up on Q1 2019.

And according to newspaper Expresso, Lisbon’s office sector was up a massive 140% by the end of March although the pandemic had yet to be reflected in office takeup figures.
March rounded off Q1 with a total take-up volume of 44,671m2, representing an increase of 6.9% compared to the same period in 2019.
“The take-up rate seen in the first quarter of 2020 has not yet seen the effects of Covid-19 on the real estate market which are right now causing a ‘wait and see’ effect in companies investment decisions.
“Nevertheless, we believe that Portugal will be able to remain an attractive and competitive market within the European context,” Rodrigo Canas, Associate Director of the Department of Offices at Savills Portugal tells online property sector news site Diário Imobiliário.
The consultant also states that during the period under analysis it closed 34 deals, a 21% decrease on the same period of 2019.
Zone 5 (Parque das Nações) represented the greatest volume of area take-up with 11,848m2 from a total of 6 deals, with two of them with areas of 3,000m2.
Zone 6 (West Corridor) occupied the greatest like-for-like increase for the quarter with a total of 11,507m2 of occupied space compared with 2,708m2 for the same period in 2019.
Three deals over 1,000m2 contributed towards this result including the take-up of 5,279m2 by Infosistema in the Proletariado building in Carnaxide.
Zone 2 (CBD) saw an occupation of 11,381m2 from a total of 5 deals with three deals over 2,000m2 including IdeaHub office centre occupying the entire building on Av. Defensores de Chaves Nº4.
The office market in Porto saw a take-up volume of 19,149m2 in Q1 of 2020, a very significant increase on the same period of 2019. In the first three months of 2019 only 4,517m2 of office space were occupied.
The CBD Boavista area which is the prime zone for the office market in Porto enjoyed the best performance of the quarter with a total volume take-up of 6,713m2.
There were 16 deals all told, representing an increase of 23% like-for-like on 2019.
“Porto continues to show that the city is successful in attracting new companies as seen in the significant take-up volume. This is also very linked to new quality office projects that are attracting the interest of multinationals to set up in these buildings,” says Rodrigo Canas, Associate Director of the Department of Offices at Savills Portugal.