10. January 2024 at 06:55

Are offices facing a dark age?

Some developers are changing plans, others see the market situation as an opportunity.

Tomáš Vašuta

Editorial

Some developers are changing plans and instead of offices build flats. Some developers are changing plans and instead of offices build flats. (source: Sme - Jozef Jakubčo)
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When the multipurpose Sky Park project was first proposed in the emerging centre of Bratislava, its dominant feature was supposed to be an office tower. Sky Park Tower was designed by the Zaha Hadid Architects architectural studio. It was supposed to provide 34,000 square metres of office premises.

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However, this plan will remain only on paper. Although the tower will be built, it will not be an office building. Its developer, Alto Real Estate, has announced that instead of offices, it will serve as a residential building.

This shows that the situation on the market is changing. There are more sceptical voices predicting that the next few years will at best bring stagnation in terms of office development.

“The market has started to clear itself. It does not favour speculative construction, as has been confirmed by several halted projects in Bratislava, or their transformation into residential projects,” said Michal Hájek from the development company Corwin.

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On other hand, fresh data published by the Bratislava Research Forum in October 2023 shows that the situation might improve faster than developers expect. Clients rented 51,684 square metres of new office space in Bratislava in the second quarter of 2023, 14 percent up when compared to the first quarter, and an 85 percent rise compared to the same period in 2022.

Offices are a risk

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