Vacancy rate of the capital's offices reached 20% in 2020, while the declared rental rates did not change, Managing Partner of UTG Offices Volodymyr Heliuta said.

According to him, the quarantine stimulated the desire of many companies to optimize the rented office space and their transition to hybrid forms of work. Attempts to agree on discounts or rotation were not always successful, which resulted in a doubling of vacancy rates in the market as a whole, up to 20%.

"The vacancy rate is even higher in business centers of B and C class, old-style business centers, and of course where the companies refused to cooperate with their tenants. But there are those who did not lose a single tenant during the quarantine or managed to rotate them - their vacancy rate is practically at zero," Heliuta said.

According to him, IT companies most often cut their space, since they turned out to be the most prepared for a long-term remote work format.

"Some companies in the grocery, agricultural and industrial sectors only improved their offices, they increased the space or moved to a similar square footage, but in better conditions for the same cost per square meter," Heliuta said.

According to the expert, the declared rental rates did not practically change, but there is a steady trend towards an individual approach, when, depending on the conditions and agreements, the rate can be reduced to 15-30% of the declared value of the object.