| 🔵 The e-commerce boom pushed Kyiv warehouse vacancy rates down from 30% to 2%, according to a new report by Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate consultancy. Although 85,000 square meters of new space were commissioned last year, rates have increased to $5.5 per square meter. “It is not enough to satisfy existing occupier demand,” said the report. This year, an additional 60,000 square meters are pipeline for 2021.
🔵 Kyiv’s office vacancy rate doubled last year, to 11%, the highest level since 2014. In turn, rents fell by 10 to 20%, reported the Kyiv Post. Faced with uncertainty in the pandemic year, CBRE Ukraine said that developers offered only 125,000 square meters of new office space — half the initial plan. This year, Cushman & Wakefield has predicted that 160,000 square meters in new office space will come on the market in Kyiv. Total current supply is 2 million square meters.
🔵 Rents are softening during the April lockdown, with discounts up to 30% expected, said Yuri Pita, President of the Association of Realtors of Ukraine, (Interfax-Ukraine). Assuming the coronavirus pandemic ebbs in May, rents will stabilize. However, he adds: “In the face of accelerating inflation, the cost of rent can increase by an average of 5-7%.”
🔵 With the EU closed to Ukrainian tourists, local beach and rural retreat hotels may enjoy another boom this summer. Vodafone has reported that analytics of cell phone users showed a 30% yoy increase last summer at Ukrainian beach resorts. On the Azov, one hamlet, Bilosarayska Kosa, about 20 kilometers west of Mariupol, saw a 177% yoy increase. Last summer, while Kyiv hotels saw occupancy rates fall to 23%, seven countryside hotels reported revenue increases, reports the Ukrainian Hotel and Resort Association. More recently, during the December-January holidays, Carpathian mountain resort hotels enjoyed almost 100% occupancies, Artur Lupashko, founder of Ribas Hotels Group, told Interfax-Ukraine. |
