ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG RICS

Obtaining a green certificate for modern office buildings has become a must in recent years. Still, developers, operators and tenants don’t fully realise what does a certification actually stand for and what kind of effect green solutions actually have on operating costs and productivity. The latest Green Talk, co-organised by RICS and HuGBC, focused on green buildings in Hungary. 

Even though all figures available as well as market sentiment point to further growth on the Hungarian commercial property market, its players still keep looking over their shoulders for potential threats to this growth. According to the speakers of the Portfolio - RICS Valuation and Investment 2017 conference, global politics and potentially rising interest rates pose the biggest threat for CEE. We report from Budapest. 

All segments of the Hungarian commercial property market have shown signs of strong growth over the last couple of years. Developers embark on a record number of new projects, but most of them soon realise that construction will take more time and be a lot more costly than they initially anticipated. The latest Tea & Talk session, organised by RICS Hungary in Budapest, helped us understand how rising construction costs and labour shortage in construction can be tackled.

Occupier and investment sentiment continues to be positive across Central and Eastern Europe according to the RICS Commercial Property Monitor for Q4 2016. Hungary and the Czech Republic remain the most upbeat markets, with Bulgaria and Croatia also gaining momentum. In Romania the pace of growth seems to be slowing down, although sentiment and projections continue to be broadly positive.

Search engines have become an integrated part of the daily life of people and companies as well. Not only the process of buying a book or planning a vacation has changed drastically over the last decade but companies looking for office space are also turning to the Internet more often. The latest Tea & Talk session, co-organised by RICS Hungary and VLK Cresa in Budapest, helped us understand how changes in technology will affect brokers, tenants and landlords.

Greater transparency and continuous training pave the way for higher professional standards on the real estate market. More than 100 professionals, from all over Austria and Central & Eastern Europe gathered in Vienna last week to discuss new directions in the profession at the latest RICS event. 

General optimism, attractive investment opportunities and more capital characterises the Central and Eastern European property market that is now considered a favourable investment destination by international investors. The second Emerging Europe Property Forum, co-organised by Portfolio Property Forum and RICS, took place on 8 November at the RICS HQ in London. 

As the term of three board members ended, RICS has presented its new board in Hungary. Further strengthened by strong professional and business skills, the new board represents an interesting mix of areas covered. 

Brexit has proven that nothing is certain, but at this point it seems that the divorce of the UK and EU won’t have much of an impact on Central and Eastern European property markets. Over 300 visitors and 70 speakers came together in Vienna to discuss the most pressing issues concerning the CEE property industry. We report from CEE Property Forum 2016, co-organised by Portfolio Property Forum and RICS. 

International investors seem to have rediscovered one of the biggest and most important markets of Southeastern Europe that have matured a lot over the past few years. Michaela Lashova MRICS, CEO of Forton (an Alliance Partner of Cushman & Wakefield for Bulgaria and FYROM) and RICS SEE Ambassador talked to us about the present and future of the Bulgarian commercial property market.