Sofia City News
A record volume of office space was put into operation in Sofia in 2019 – 180,000 sq m or twice as much as in 2018 – according to data from the consulting company MBL. The locations are mainly near Tsarigradsko Shose Blvd. and the Mladost and Hladilnika neighbourhoods. Tenants from the IT sector are most active in the market and account for 43% of the newly leased space, followed by outsourcing companies with a 25% share in the transactions.
The share of vacant offices increased to 9.8% from 8.5%. The average rental levels remain unchanged – between EUR 12 and EUR 14 per sq m of Class A space, and between EUR 8 and EUR 11 per sq m of Class B space.
Another 300,000 sq m are planned for construction. Construction works have not yet started, as the projects are at the stage of receiving building permission.
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Data from 22 sensor stations measuring the ambient air quality in Sofia are available in real time at https://platform.airthings-project.com/. The link to the platform will also be available on the municipality’s specialised site air.sofia.bg.
The sensor stations have been installed by the Municipality as one of the activities under the AIRTHINGS pilot project, funded by the European Union under the Balkans – Mediterranean Program (2014 – 2020). Sofia Municipality is a leading partner in the program alongside four other cities – Thessaloniki, Nicosia, Tirana and Skopje.
Station data can be tracked in real time. They show the status of different pollutants, history of the last 14 days and more. The platform provides data from all five cities in an open, machine-readable format as well. As more data accumulates, the system’s accuracy improves.
The project will last 36 months in order provide an analysis on how climate change across seasons affects data quality and measurements. At a later stage, additional stations may be added to the platform, and the sensors may be upgraded for other types of measurements, such as noise pollution.
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Wizz Air and Bulgaria Air are to open flights from Sofia to St. Petersburg. The national carrier’s flights are the first to launch. Starting on April 18, Bulgaria Air will carry passengers every Wednesday and Saturday. The low-cost airline will fly three times a week – Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with the first flight launching on July 2. Both carriers’ tickets are now on sale.
