Office trends Q4 2025 by C&W Forton
ECONOMY:SERVICES-DRIVEN EXPANSION
Bulgaria’s economy continued to grow in Q4 2025 thanks to a strong services sector. Production indices for October and November show broad-based expansion. Output volumes increased at a pace faster than in the same period of last year in information and communications, real estate, professional, and administrative and support activities. Even if production was inconsistent in transport and hotels & restaurants, sales volumes in wholesale and retail grew at a healthy y/y rate.
Meanwhile, the industrial sector continued to struggle. Manufacturing and power supply contracted in October and November, and mining output was inconsistent. A single bright spot in the sector was construction, as production in buildings and civil engineering continued to rise.
A key development with wide economic implications in the fourth quarter was the turmoil stirred by the 2026 draft state budget. Higher tax, debt, and spending levels set in the document provoked mass protest and ultimately its withdrawal and the cabinet’s resignation. As a result, Bulgaria enters 2026 somewhat shaken but with high hopes for beneficial advancement in its first year in the Eurozone and positive change at the early elections in mid- April.
DEMAND:leisurely last meters in otherwise excellent run
In the twelve months to December, 31, 2025, leasing activity on Sofia’s office market improved. Gross take-up amounted to 204,000 sqm, up 10% from 185,000 sq m in 2024. The structure of the contracted volume remained essentially the same, as did the breakdown by submarkets.
In the last quarter of 2025, the market switched from gallop to a trot. Gross take-up stood at 45,224 sq m, down 28% from the previous quarter and down 22% from a year ago. The contracted space was split between IT firms (35%), professional services companies (17%), administrative and support entities (11%), financial institutions (10%), wholesale and distribution players (8%) and others (18%). Relocations and new arrivals accounted for 43% of the contracted volume, followed by renewals with 41%, expansions with 13%, and subleases with 3%.
Leasing activity in Q4 2025 was highest in the Main Road submarket. About 25,000 sqm (55% of gross take-up) were contracted in office buildings along Tsarigradsko shose, Cherni Vrah, Vaptsarov, Bulgaria and Todor Alexandrov blvds. The Suburbs came second with 16,000 sqm, followed by the Broad Center and the CBD areas with a combined 4,400 sqm.
In Q4 2025, half of the interviewed asset managers felt that enquiries from prospective tenants were about the same as in the previous quarter, over a third felt that enquiries were fewer, and less that a fifth felt these were more.
Read the full report here.
