There are currently around 3.2 million square meters of office space on the Budapest office market, including owner-occupied buildings. The volume of modern owner-occupied buildings – properties built or renovated after 1989, excluding government-owned buildings – is estimated at 550,000 square meters. Modern office space built as leased office in Budapest comes to about 2.6 million square meters. The majority of this (75%) is Class A quality. The Hungarian office market is focused predominantly on the capital, although some modern office space has also been built in the biggest regional cities.
The overall vacancy rate on the market of leased offices was about 25% at the end of 2010, which was the highest level it has ever reached. The vacancy rate did not change significantly in 2011, and in the third quarter of 2012 it rose to 26%.
The high vacancy rate and deteriorating market conditions resulted in decreasing rental fees in the Budapest office market since the second half of 2008. Rents have probably reached their lowest level and are not expected to decrease further in the new developments, but investors of older projects and secondary locations may be forced to offer even more attractive rental packages.