Budapest's Modern Office Stock Further Expanded in Q4 2024

The modern office stock in Budapest increased by 2,150 square meters in the fourth quarter of 2024, thanks to the handover of the Liget Center Vitrum office building, the Budapest Real Estate Consultants Forum (BRF) told MTI on Tuesday.

The total modern office stock in Budapest currently amounts to 4,455,615 square meters, of which 3,604,010 square meters is modern speculative office space and more than 851,000 square meters is owner-occupied office space, the BRF said.

According to the release, total demand in the fourth quarter of 2024 amounted to 170,630 sqm, an annual increase of 30%. Within the demand, contract renewals accounted for 76%, new leases for 18%, and expansions and pre-leases for 4% and 2%, respectively.

They added that annual demand reached 502,150 square meters, an 8 percent increase from 2023. Net demand (transactions excluding contract renewals and owner-occupied transactions) in 2024 was 190,730 sqm, a 20% decrease from the previous year's annual results.

The vacancy rate reached 14.1% in the fourth quarter of 2024, up 0.1 percentage points from the previous quarter and 0.8 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.

The highest tenant activity in the fourth quarter was seen in the Váci Road office corridor, with 37% of the total volume being booked there. The second highest activity was recorded in the South Buda submarket, which accounted for 22% of the quarterly leasing volume.

BRF recorded 143 leases in Q4, with an average size of 1,195 sqm. Four transactions were concluded for more than 10,000 sqm: Ericsson, SAP and the Ministry of Agriculture completed their lease extensions in this quarter, and there was one extension over 10,000 sqm on Váci Road. The largest new transaction of the quarter was in BudaPart Downtown, where Alteo signed for almost 4,700 sqm.

The members of the Budapest Real Estate Consultants' Advisory Forum are CBRE, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield, Eston International, iO Partners and Robertson Hungary.