The volume of transactions in the business centers of Moscow is reduced
The critically low level of free space in the business centers of Moscow forces companies in need of expansion, to postpone the move to better times. As a result, this led to a reduction in the volume of transactions in the segment by 16% of the year by the results of the first quarter of 2025. The situation with a shortage of free office premises on the horizon of the next years will not be resolved, consultants warn.
In January -March 2025, the volume of transactions with office real estate in Moscow decreased by 16% of the year, to 360 thousand square meters. m, told Kommersant in the consulting company Core.xp. According to preliminary data from the consulting company NF Group, in the first quarter of the current year it was rented or redeemed 270–280 thousand square meters. m, which is 5-8% less than a year by the year.
The number of transactions is reduced not due to low demand (it is just high), but due to a deficiency of qualitative supply. According to the head of the department of the office real estate department, Core.xp Irina Khoroshilova, the share of free premises in Moscow’s offices in January -March of 2025 was reduced by 2.5 percentage points, to a low volume of input of such real estate. According to the head of the department for working with the office premises of the IBC Real Estate consulting company, Ekaterina Belova, due to the lack of free premises, the volume of transactions with office real estate will decrease by 26% of the year, to 1.7 million square meters. m.
In January -March 2025, the demand for rental offices with a total area of more than 5 thousand square meters. M increased for the next year by the year, Counted Mrs. Khoroshilova. According to her, such an increase is associated with the desire of large companies to occupy the remaining attractive areas. However, office spaces of up to 500 square meters became the most popular. m – about 77% of the total number of lease transactions accounted for them, they say in Core.xp.
Due to the low level of vacancies in the Moscow business centers, which need to expand working spaces, postpone the decision to rent space, said Polina Afanasyeva, head of the CMWP research department and analysts. Hard monetary policy, in turn, reduces the capabilities of companies to acquire offices for their needs, adds NF Group partner Maria Zimina.
Previously, active buyers of business centers were state structures. So, last year, Russian Railways JSC acquired almost the entire Moscow Towers skyscraper in the Moscow City business quarter, and the Central Bank-part of the Slava complex at the Belorussky station. Only these two transactions accounted for 46% of the total volume of offices sold in 2024, says Irina Khoroshilova. This year, government agencies will be less active, which will also affect the decrease in the number of transactions in the office market, adds Ms. Afanasyeva. For three months of 2025, a pair of large sales passed, for example, the purchase of a T-bank of the building of the central telegraph on Tverskaya Street in Moscow (See “Kommersant” from February 5).
At the same time, talk about the emergence of a new trend for a serious reduction in demand for office real estate, according to Maria Zimina, is still early. She emphasizes that the greatest business activity in the segment is traditionally in the second half of the year. At the same time, Valentin Kusov Valentin Kusov, the deputy head of the Nikoliers office real estate department, concludes, the current conjuncture forms outdated demand, which in the future will lead to an increase in the volume of transactions.
