Despite the increase in vacant spaces in 2022, the first half of 2023 witnessed high activity levels in the commercial real estate market, as well as the implementation of fairly large transactions.

In the first half of 2023, O1 Properties, the largest owner of class A office real estate in Moscow, attracted new clients for over 30,000 m² of rental spaces. The main office space tenants are Russian companies engaged in production of equipment, design, construction and provision of services. The share of Russian companies among O1 Properties’ new clients was almost 80%. The average size of leased space exceeds 1,200 m².

In the first half of 2023, the largest spaces were leased in the Legend of Tsvetnoy business center, where new tenants occupied over 4,500 m². One of these residents is the MEF Legal consulting company. It specializes in representing business interests in tax, legal, antitrust, and commercial disputes. MEF’s new legal office in the Legend of Tsvetnoy will occupy over 1,500 m².

The leader in the number of transactions was the Stanislavsky Factory business center, where 4 organizations moved in at once. The largest deal was concluded with the “Russia – the Land of Opportunities” autonomous non-profit organization, which occupied over 3,000 m².

Representatives of Chinese companies continue to be active. For example, OOO FAW-Eastern Europe, FAW’s distributor in Russia, occupied 1,700 m² at the Krugozor business center.

“In the first 6 months of 2023, we managed to reach more than 90% of last year’s indicators. Despite the fact that tenant demographics have changed, residents still prefer high-quality A-class office space. Today, the vacancy rate in the O1 Properties portfolio has stabilized at 12% with a downward trend. We see that the outflow of foreign companies has dropped to a minimum. In addition, rental rates have remained unchanged since the beginning of 2023,” noted Pavel Barbashev, Head of Sales at O1 Properties.