By Piotr Lomakin
According to Tvoya Stolitsa (Your Capital) Consult, rental of trading premises developed most dynamically in 2010. The number of registered applications for premises of up to 50 sq.m doubled on 2009. Many sites became newly available for purchase, inspiring demand. Additionally, there was an increase in the number of new participants on the trading market and a deficiency of quality sites to buy. “The appearance of retail centres and small wholesale traders in new residential districts should change the situation and improve the infrastructure of these districts,” notes Tvoya Stolitsa Consult.
Specialists say that, by 2015, nine more large trade-entertainment centres (covering 10,000-30,000 sq.m each) are to be built in Minsk. They also believe that office rental stabilised in the second half of 2010; forecast growth is being met now. About 10 percent of all offices are currently vacant in Minsk; in late 2009, this figure stood at 17 percent. A large share of vacant space (20-30 percent according to some estimations) is seen where rental rates have been fixed at high prices, without taking into consideration the realities of the market.
