At the end of H1 2018, there was more than 2.13 million sqm of warehouse and industrial space under construction across Poland with Central Poland accounting for more than one-fourth of the development pipeline, according to Cresa. Despite the healthy supply, the vacancy rate will remain below 5% this year and is likely to edge down to approximately 4% next year on account of a base effect and the expected robust occupier demand.

A strong increase in new supply is expected in the upcoming two years, however, most submarkets of the Budapest office market will still face rental growth in 2018. Sustained rental growth for Class A properties across all submarkets - except the Periphery - is forecasted. Rental growth on the Class B market is expected to be more moderate, driven both by Hungarian firms entering the institutional market and multinational firms seeking lower cost office options, according to Colliers International's latest, mid-year office market report.

Atrium European Real Estate Limited has signed an agreement to acquire Wars Sawa Junior, a prime retail asset located in the heart of Warsaw and in its most prominent high street retail area, for a consideration of €301.5 million. Atrium is to acquire Wars Sawa Junior from PFCEE, a fund managed by CBRE Global Investors, using a mixture of existing cash resources and external financing.

Alternative investment products have been slowly growing in popularity for some time now in CEE. As clients look for new types of services from advisory firms, this trend is here to stay. Jonathan Hallett MRICS, Executive Partner | Head of Central & Eastern Europe at Cushman & Wakefield talked to Property Forum about business lines, technology and competition.

The rate of shopping centre development in Europe is slowing, with completions down 23% year-on-year at 3.8 million sqm 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest European Shopping Centres report.

Telekom Romania announced the sale of two plots of land located in the Floreasca area of Bucharest to One United Properties. The transaction price exceeded €18 million.

Andrei Văcaru has been promoted to Head of Capital Markets JLL Romania, effective 1st August 2018. Andrei has over 13 years’ experience in the Romanian real estate market which spans over different segments including capital markets, consultancy, retail leasing and retail tenant representation.

More than 180,000 sqm of retail space was added to the Polish retail market in H1 2018 and another 330,000 sqm is expected to be completed by year-end 2018. This will represent an increase of over 25% year-on-year, bringing Poland’s total retail stock to more than 14,800,000 sqm. The new supply will be concentrated in cities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, accounting for 40% of this year’s openings. Cushman & Wakefield has published another edition of its MarketBeat report.

In H1 2018, demand on Poland’s industrial market was 2 million sqm - this is the best ever result recorded in the market’s history. In addition, industrial stock in Poland has now exceeded 14 million sqm, according to JLL.

The overall European logistics yield dropped 14bps to 5.95% in Q2 2018, the first time it has fallen below 6% since Cushman & Wakefield began consistently tracking the three main property sectors in 1992, according to the firm’s DNA of Real Estate report.