To retain tenants, they reduce rates by more than 15%

In Omsk, due to the crisis, the number of transactions in the commercial real estate market has halved over the past six months. The real price of business real estate fell by 15%, market participants predict that by the end of the year the drop will be up to 30%. To retain tenants, owners of shopping and office centers are forced to reduce rental prices by more than 15% and also offer bonuses.

According to the observations of participants in the commercial real estate market, the number of transactions for the sale of properties in Omsk has halved, and prices have begun to decline. “There are fewer offers: sellers are still holding back the most interesting properties, and buyers are being stopped by too expensive loans,” said Alexander Barko, head of the commercial real estate department at Avesta Realty. “The price of business real estate in advertisements has remained almost unchanged, but during the bargaining process it drops by 15%. By the end of the year, the cost of commercial real estate, taking into account bargaining, will decrease by 25–30%. Investors who have the resources will take for next to nothing objects that are in poor technical condition or do not generate income, for example industrial facilities,” says Alexander Stukov, founder of the Albion KN LLC agency. According to him, due to the situation on the market, Omsk commercial real estate brokers are forced to move en masse into the residential real estate segment.

As for renting business real estate, the crisis has had the greatest impact on overvalued street retail, says Alexander Barko. “This applies to premises occupied by brand stores that paid 3-4 thousand rubles. for 1 sq. m. They will leave, and there will be no one to replace them,” he believes. According to realtors, now the average cost of renting an office in the city center is about 650 rubles. for 1 sq. m, pavilion on the ground floor of a shopping complex - 1.5 thousand rubles. for 1 sq. m. “Owners are trying to maintain value, but it is often more important to retain the tenant. They are starting to sag: over the past six months, the rental rate for commercial space has been reduced by 10%,” said Mr. Stukov. “Today it has become easier to negotiate with landlords, ask for additional benefits on rental holidays, the rental discount can now reach 20%,” agrees the founder of Regional Real Estate LLC Dmitry Sapunov.

Experts and market participants agree that office space owners will suffer the most during the crisis, as branches of out-of-town companies, trading companies specializing in imports will begin to leave the city, and car complexes will become empty. “By the fall, vacancies in some shopping and retail and office centers may reach 50%; they will have to significantly reduce rental rates,” believes Dmitry Sapunov. “There is already a noticeable decrease in the occupancy of shopping and office complexes. Previously, they were filled at the level of 80-90%, but now - at 75-80%,” said Mr. Stukov. According to experts, grocery stores in the “close to home” format will suffer the least during the crisis.

Owners of large shopping and office centers confirm that they are forced to make concessions to their tenants. “At the end of last year, we adjusted the rent for office and retail space due to the fact that we received many requests from tenants asking for its reduction. We met halfway and offered some of them a discount of more than 10%,” said Gennady Sushkov, co-owner of Flagman CJSC (Flagman retail and office complex). He admits that since the beginning of the year there have been cases of termination of contracts, mainly with representative offices of out-of-town companies, which were tasked by head offices with significantly reducing costs. “In Moscow, 60% of class A business centers are vacant; Omsk is unlikely to be more prosperous. We have more than a hundred tenants, we are looking for favorable conditions, mutually beneficial solutions, thanks to which we have so far been able to preserve the backbone,” said Ilya Ivanov, co-owner of the Herzen Plaza and Cossack Sloboda shopping centers.

Olga Danilova

Developers have made concessions