Murmansk. Commercial rent.

Choice of proper office location is crucial and none the less important than sustainable business plans, the start-up capital or other relevant priorities. Murmansk has actually much to offer concerning the office premises within the town centre and out-of-centre, and the price issue is quite relevant here.

The hotels Poliarnie Zori and Meridian provide offices for 1200 RUB and 800 RUB per sq. metre correspondingly, yet offices of small space are most popular and since mostly occupied. A newly-erected Megafon center offers premises for 1000 RUB, Alfa Bank – 950 RUB.

Off the centre, one can find cheaper premises from 250 RUB (Centre Maximum) – 600 RUB (Centre Greenwich, Plazagroup) per sq. metre. Actually, there can be found even lower prices starting from 100 RUB per sq.m, yet the decrepit state and location of those leave much to be desired.

In this background, Innovation Centre Polar Star is all-winning. 10 minute drive from the centre and 690 RUB of rent for a sq. metre, modern offices, a canteen and a barbecue house (presently at the construction process). Norwegian-Russian business incubator within its walls beat the rent record in the city providing fully fledged office areas for 210 RUB per sq. m. that also includes internet and electricity fees; the company though should meet some admittance criteria.

The prices given mostly include utilities and taxes.

Presently, there are two more office buildings being planned in the city. “Severnoye Nagornye” and International business centre “Murman”. Both are located in Pervomaysky district. The first one (owned by a private company) takes optimistic plans for late 2011, the latter (owned by Northern Chamber of Commerce and Barents Invest AS) bought an underconstructed building in 2007 as is now trying to find investment backup for the project.

Since 2009, almost all the renters put up their rent prices up to 30%, yet currently the process of correcting the price levels down is evident around the city.

Source: www.barentsnova.com