Office Occupancy Up 14% in Lisbon Since Last Year
18 May 2018
The office area contracted in Abril 2018 (21,020 m²), an increase of 111% above April 2017 (9,949 m²), portends a positive start to the second quarter. In accumulated terms, approximately 61,360 m² were leased from January to April 2018, 14% more than in the same period of 2017 (53,590 m²).
According to an analysis of the office market by the consulting firm Savills Aguirre Newman, 74 transactions were registered in the year to April, 12 less than in the same period last year.
The largest number of transactions occurred in the Western Corridor (zone 6) with 21 transactions. At the opposite extreme is the Secondary Zone (Zone 4), which has had no new leasing transactions in 2018.
According to Teresa Cachada, an analyst at Savills Aguirre Newman’s Consulting Department, “the second quarter of the year started off very positively, in contrast to the months before that had lagged behind the beginning of 2017. This month saw the expansion of Teleperformance, which just contracted another 8,000 m² in the Parque das Nações area, in a building that underwent remodelling to receive the company. In recent years our market has been marked by the presence of Shared Services companies. These have been strong drivers of the office market and responsible for the main contracted areas.”
The Emerging Zone (Zone 3) saw 13,147 m² of new leases, representing 21% of the total.
Evaluating the absorption by area interval during the year 2018, we can see that 69% of the registered transactions were for areas of more than 300 m², while 23 transactions below 300 m² were also registered.
The average area contracted per transaction increased by 33% from 623 m² in the first four months of 2017 to 829 m² in the same period of 2018.
As in recent months, the entire area contracted so far in 2018 was for used office buildings.
The “Business Services” sector stood out with 11,874 m² and was responsible for 56% of the area contracted in April.
Original Story: Diário Imobiliário
Translation: Richard Turner