According to the signs, the opening boom will continue while it is becoming ever more natural that the buildings are still empty at the opening. It is rare, although not unique, that the "full" sign can be hung over the front door at the time when the building is taken into possession " as it happened in the case of Millenáris Irodaház. The trend, however, seems to be that the offi ces are occupied within 1,5 to 2 years after the completion of the facility. The fi rst enquirers tend to show up in 3 to 6 months before the building is opened, but the contracts are usually not signed before the building is handed over to use.

Apart from a few individual cases, it was never typical of the Budapest market to apply such pre-rent constructs that bind the future tenants to the facility before its construction begins, and even those contracts are rare that are made during the realization, says Franciska Horváth, head of the DTZ agency office. Although the speculative and skyrocketing development-boom can cause a temporary increase in empty sites, the demand is also on the rise; new claims for shared service centres and call centres - occupying several thousand square metres - appear, while the demand driven by the natural expansion of the companies also contributes to swallowing up the majority of supply.

The real estate expert mentions the growth of SmithKline Beecham as an example of this phenomenon. The company has started its Hungarian operations at the beginning of the nineties, on no more than 120 square metres, and by now, after merging with Glaxo, the GSK is renting a whole tower in MOM Park. Nonetheless, the typical size of transactions is around 300 square metres.

There is still no sign of any investment threatening the popularity of the offi ce corridor of Váci Avenue. Alongside its proximity to the centre, the metro line, and the additional possibilities for future development, the top offi ce site of the capital has another unforfeitable merit: its ease of access from the Buda side. The vast majority of the company executives still come from this side of the Danube, and like to arrive to their offices swiftly, emphasises the expert. The prestige of the area will also be uplifted by the impending developments at the Pest foot of the Árpád Bridge, the Northern Quarter; the Raiffeisen towers are also planned to be built in the area. At the same time, the new developments undeniably give way to new centres of gravity in the footsteps of the investors. Such an emerging area is the South Pest region, and the surroundings of Népliget within it, just as the airport corridor, the outer end of which already witnessed the launch of The Quadrum offi cepark.

The investors are already starting new plans of great magnitude in the area, while the offi ce developments connected to the Corvin Promenade will plug the inner city back to the circulation of the life of the capital. In South Buda, the planned terminal station of Metro 4 functions as a magnet, while the South Pest region provides a stage for great plans even without the metro.

The number of multi-functional offi ce constructions are also growing, these are characteristically developed jointly with residential and commercial properties. Among those mentioned above, the Corvin Promenade and the Duna City project of South Pest belongs to this particular kind investment, but the Sasad Liget and the Sasad Resort projects were also supplemented with residential buildings, just as the parks built in the agglomeration, such as the Tópark and the Solaris.

The expected absorption of 500-600 thousand square metres of offi ce potential in the next two years is supported by the hopes stemming form growing demand, since 60 percent of the 325 thousand square metres transactional record
last year originated from new contracts.

Investors do everything in their power to meet the heightening demand of tenants, continuously expanding the range of services available on site with restaurants, cafés, post offi
ces, medical facilities, wellness and fi tness centres or laundries. In addition, they often take on the cost of interior furnishing or the moving of offi ces, or turn to the long standing
institute of rent-free periods. Therefore average rental fees are hard to determine, reckons Franciska Horváth, saying that the common monthly offers level around 13 to 15 euros
per square metres, while the actual sum is always a matter of individual agreements.



KERET
What is the ideal office like?
Cushman & Wakefi eld asked tenants to list their expectations concerning offi ce buildings; they summarized the results in their newly published research, "Developers and tenants". The list is as follows:
1. natural light
2. HSE standards (health and safety)
3. air conditioning (4 piped)
4. existence of parking space
5. energy effi ciency
Environmental consciousness was only fourteenth on the list of priorities. Nonetheless, the EU governing principle on the energetics of buildings, which comes into effect in 2009, will draw attention to the awareness on energy economics; it is also probable that cost-effi cient buildings in regards to energy economics will be more attractive in the future, resulting in the rise of their market-value. Almost half of the interviewed tenants said that they are willing to pay a higher rental fee for such offi ces, which also makes evident the importance of green buildings.