Liliya Krasteva: Sofia Airport Center has a high occupancy rate

Liliya Krasteva, Country Head Bulgaria/ Head of Property Management at Ceres Management Services, took part in Forum Real - one of the most important and influential conferences on real estate, investment, construction and innovation. She shared her expert opinion in the "Office space: is the market recovering?" panel.

The online event, held on November 3rd and 4th, was attended by more than 30,000 people and more than 150 top guest speakers, including developers, leading architects, suppliers, consultants and real estate experts.

Krasteva commented that, contrary to expectations, the office space market in Sofia is not declining but is adapting to the new reality and actually moving forward, and the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to some innovative solutions in terms of shared spaces. "Despite the challenges in the office sector over the past year and a half, Sofia Airport Center has a high occupancy rate and reports stability in terms of tenancies. From the very beginning of the pandemic, the team of Sofia Airport Center made efforts and introduced strict cleaning and disinfection measures, which ensured the highest level of safety. As of October 2021, Sofia Airport Center –has obtained a Safe Guard Certificate against COVID-19 risks and is a perfectly safe working environment. Our tenants continue to apply the hybrid model of work, which successfully combines work from home and office.

Sofia Airport Center responds to the crisis with flexible workspaces and improved interior and exterior common areas in the complex. The newly created working stations in Flex-R lounge are aimed at companies that are willing to provide alternative and innovative working solutions for their employees. In this way, social distance is achieved, but without the need to rent additional office space.

„Companies are looking for more and more diverse office solutions for their employees. We had a wonderful winter garden with palm trees and fountains, which was a favorite place for employees to relax. We decided to invest in reorganizing the common area at its best  potential and build a whole new space in a business building, adapted to the requirements imposed by new reality. Sofia Airport Center has launched a renovation project The Flex-R lounge. The large-scale initiative is inspired by the idea of comfort and home coziness of employees. The place offers a total of 50 new workstations. Additional recreation areas are located next to an amazing park space, with richly landscaped footpaths that lead to our beautiful lake, thus all health safety and relaxation conditions for an improved wellbeing of the employees are met.“, shares Liliya Krasteva.

The experts in the panel agreed that the optimization of office design, ensuring a healthy interior environment and the quality of business buildings are becoming of utmost importance in selecting the new office spaces for potential tenants,  whereas the price factor becomes secondary.

The principles of sustainable development represented the main topic in the panel "Office space: is the market recovering?". Worldwide, the use of environmentally friendly construction materials and systems reduces environmental impact. “Sofia Airport Center is the first business complex in Bulgaria to have a LEED Gold certificate for the A2 building in this respect,  an international recognition for the use of sustainable construction materials and technologies.

According to The World Built Environment Forum,  the real estate sector consumes over 40% of global energy per annum, that buildings are the origin of 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and use around 40% of raw materials. Given the impact of real estate has at a global scale, investors are nowadays are more and more involved in sustainable practices and developments. “The focus on implementing the ESG initiatives has become paramount in today’s reality and, as real estate players, we have the responsibility to our communities to focus on sustainable technologies, reduction of consumption, using green energies and improve the wellbeeing of employees”, Liliya Krasteva concluded.