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The rent prices of offices in Tirana and Bucharest are equal to Athens’, reported Imerisia this week. The newspaper referred to the analysis of several real estate agencies operating on the Balkan market. According to Colliers International, currently the tenants of the first class offices are paying about 15 euros/sq. m. The tenants of first class offices in the Romanian and Albanian capital are paying the same amount.

Already 12% of the offices in the Greek capital remained empty, and the trends are that this number will increase. Only 790,000 sq. m of the office areas are under construction, which also indicates that the Greek real estate market is in a serious deadlock. The building companies have postponed the implementation of major projects until the demand increases again.

"The flat state of the property market hinders the development of new projects, which in many cases are either terminated, or postponed until the local economy does not begin to give signs of restoring positive growth," states the latest analysis of Eurobank EFG Property Services on the state of the real estate market in Greece. Following the rule that money makes money, first class markets kept the volume of transactions but cut the prices. The second class property was not so lucky and there was registered drop in both demand and prices.

According to experts, the good old days when a square metre of office space on Syntagma Square and Vassilis Sofias Avenue in Athens reached 40 euros are gone forever. The rent price of the offices on Kifisias Avenue fell about 30% from around 28 euros/sq. m, and currently the best business offices can house their new tenants at a price between 17-19 euros/sq. m. The purchase prices are in the range between 20-23 euros/sq. m. The prices on Sigrou Avenue, which is popular for its row of business buildings, have dropped a lot and a good premise facing the central thoroughfare of the capital can be easily found.

Тhe Greek real estate market experts say that good times are ahead for all those willing to change their location in the city. The balloon of property prices began to drop and as Ioannis Revitis - the President of the Union of Real Estate Brokers - explained for GRReporter at the end of 2010, this crisis will recover the healthy functioning of the sector. A recent survey of real estate held by Savills shows that the total volume of prime quality offices in Athens is 1.9 million sq. m, and 65% of the modern office buildings in the capital are located in the northern suburbs. Businessmen looking to hire a premise for work still prefer properties that are not centrally located because they are cheaper.