At the end of Q3 2017, the vacancy rate in the Czech industrial market reached 3.6%. Vacancy in Prague fell below the country average to the level of 2.8%. The Industrial Research Forum has released the final industrial market figures for Q3 2017.

The office markets of Central European capitals are growing dynamically with the number of new leases on the rise and vacancy rates hitting record lows in several cities. In light of all this it is no surprise that development activity is also heating up on the most popular markets of the region.

Total stock on the Czech industrial property market reached 6.71 million sqm by the end of the third quarter of 2017. From July to September this year, 68,000 sqm of new warehouse space were completed in 5 parks. Compared to Q2 2017, when a total of 208,000 sqm was delivered, it means a quarter-on-quarter decline of 67 percent. Compared to Q3 2016, when a total of 52,000 sqm was delivered to the market, it is a year-on-year increase of 31 percent. 108 Agency presented an overview of the Czech industrial property market.

Continued growth in the investment attractiveness of Warsaw has resulted in high demand for modern office space and is matched by tremendous developer activity. JLL summarised the situation on the Warsaw office market at the end of Q3 2017.

Orbis is launching Aparthotels Adagio - a new aparthotel brand on the Eastern European market. Enlarging the brand portfolio by adding Aparthotels Adagio, Orbis Group is diversifying its network development and enters the city-centre apartment market as a development acceleration lever.

ECE and Allianz have opened the new, comprehensively modernised food court of the shopping centre located in the Polish city of Katowice. During an extensive refurbishment period, the modernized food court of the centre received a new design with modern furniture and a better quality of stay. The refurbishment and modernization was conducted during ongoing operations in the centre in a construction time of approximately five months. All in all the owners invested €2 million into the modernization.

At the beginning of this month the owner of Kupiec Poznański has signed an agreement to modernise the office part of the building. The scope of works includes a creation of reception area dedicated to office space that will be independent from the shopping centre part. Moreover new modern lifts will be introduced and common areas on the office floors will be rearranged according to design project provided by Kostka&Kurka architectural studio. The concept and scope of changes have been prepared by BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland who is the exclusive leasing agent of the building and its property manager. The works are scheduled to finish in February 2018.

Commerz Real has founded a joint venture together with Unibail-Rodamco for the Prague shopping centre Metropole Zlicin, which has until recently been fully owned by its open-ended real estate fund hausInvest. To this end it has sold 50 per cent of its shares in the property company to Unibail-Rodamco. It was agreed that confidentiality be maintained on the purchase price. Unibail-Rodamco will be assuming the asset and property management for the centre.

One car in Warsaw carries on average 1.3 people and, according to research conducted by JLL, in the Służewiec district of Warsaw, 87% of cars are only occupied by the driver. As a consequence, finding a vacant parking space becomes a great challenge, especially when the rapid development of office districts in all of Poland's major cities are taken into account. So what can be done about this rather sorry state of affairs? Well there are a number of solutions.

German discount supermarket chain Penny Market opened a logistics centre in Veszprém, Western Hungary, following a nearly €30 million (HUF 9 billion) investment. The facility offers 26,500 sqm of warehouse space on a 10 ha land. The new warehouse can hold 15,000 pallets.