Construction of modern offices should recover in the future, Saulius Vagonis, head of the Valuation and Market Research Unit at the real estate services company Ober-Haus, said at a news conference on Wednesday.
“The shortage of office space is most felt in Vilnius hence the constructors are bold here and go ahead fast,” he said.
Some 9 percent of office space is vacant in Vilnius as compared to 15 percent in Riga and 20 percent in Tallinn, according to the data from Ober-Haus.
Office buildings with the area of 35,000 square meters are planned to be built in Vilnius this year and will be followed by 80,000 square meters in 2013–2014. However, the space was very big hence some projects might be turned down or postponed, Vagonis said.
Some 227 million litas (EUR 65.8 mln) were invested in new commercial property in Lithuania in 2011. Some 80,000 square meters of office space were sold, up 4 percent from 77,500 square meters a year before.
“Considering the investment deals, the market recovered in 2010–2011 as compared with the low point in 2009. The volume of investment is two or three times smaller compared to the the times of housing boom. However, the deals are being made, albeit slowly,” Vagonis said.
Last year, investment in commercial property was made by investors from Lithuania (41 pct), Finland (34 pct), Sweden (20 pct) and Norway (5 pct).
