OREANDA-NEWS  State-owned companies and industrialists began to return employees to their Moscow offices, Kommersant writes with reference to analysts and real estate market participants.

The development company Asterus predicts that in the first quarter of 2023 in Moscow, the volume of lease and purchase transactions of office real estate will amount to 200 thousand square meters against 348 thousand square meters a year earlier. Although the indicator has decreased, analysts assess this result positively: transactions are formed exclusively by new demand.

If last year 72 percent of the total volume of transactions provided transfers from 2022, now we are talking only about new transactions. According to the developer Stone Hedge, since the beginning of the year in Moscow, transactions with Class A offices (in new business centers) have been concluded by 35 percent more than last year.

Dmitry Klapsha, CEO of Remain, also notes the growth of business activity in the capital's office market. According to him, the areas are bought and rented by firms that previously took a wait-and-see position. Elena Medushevskaya, Deputy Director of the Nikoliers Office Real Estate Department, noted that state-owned companies, departments, IT and the industrial sector are showing the greatest interest.

Nevertheless, NF Group partner Maria Zimina expects an increase in vacant space relative to the end of 2022. The fact is that foreign companies continue to leave Russia, explains Denis Bobkov, head of the Asterus Analytics Department. By the end of the year, the share of empty space in the Class A office segment may reach 20 percent, although in previous years it did not exceed 10-12 percent, the expert believes. The demand of domestic companies will not be able to fully compensate for the mass withdrawal of foreign ones.

In March, Yandex announced that it was switching its employees to a hybrid mode of operation — now they are required to be in the office two or three days a week. At the same time, employees can choose any office of the company, including a foreign one — in Kazakhstan, Armenia, Serbia or Turkey. As The Bell wrote (included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the list of foreign agents), the IT giant asked employees to return to their offices in early December, and some of them to Russian offices. According to the sources of the publication, the company considered that the efficiency of working remotely from abroad is falling.