The office rental rates in Bulgaria's Sofia have increased by an average of 8% in Q1 2014 compared to the same period of last year.

The rents of more luxurious offices now range between EUR 10.50 and 12 per sq m per month, the Managing Director of Colliers International Iglika Yordanova told Bulgaria's Trud.

The main reason for the price hike is the decreasing supply of first-class office space, according to the expert.

Thus, currently in Sofia where there are no more than twenty first-class office buildings, the vacant space is only about 10%. For comparison, the vacancy in all commercial buildings in Sofia is about 18%. For the same period of 2013, the vacant office space was 25%.

The leading trend on the office space market in Sofia is for a higher demand for premises from 100 to 1500 square meters at the expense of larger offices, Trud daily informs.

By the end of the year some 80 000 square meters of offices will be complete. Those are located mostly along the Bulgaria and Tsarigradsko Shose Boulevards.