2017 witnessed robust leasing activity that was driven largely by the financial services sector, which amid moderate supply pushed Warsaw’s office vacancy rate down to 11.7%, the lowest since Q3 2013. Cushman & Wakefield presented an overview of the Warsaw office market for 2017.

Retail is changing rapidly with e-commerce having already brought on the death of several shopping centres overseas. Europe is not exempt from this phenomenon, even though the market in general strongly differs from that of the U. S. An interview with Savino Natalicchio MRICS, Director of the Retail Business Unit at Duff & Phelps Real Estate Advisory Group’s Advisory and Valuation Department in Milan, who talked about the future of retail and changing shopping centre valuation practices.

P3 has a strong pipeline of Romanian projects for 2018, the company announced. P3 plans to open new locations in Bucharest and the western part of the country.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it has subscribed €50 million into a €500 million Eurobond first issuance by NE Property Cooperatief, a company owned by CEE-focused real estate investment trust NEPI Rockcastle.

The Polish Office Research Forum has published its figures for 2017 for the office market in eight major regional cities in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Szczecin, Lublin). The market data prepared by a team of analysts includes modern office stock, new completions, take-up volumes and vacancy rates.

Futureal Group has become the first property developer in Europe to receive the WELL Building Platinum Precertification for three of its office building projects at the same time. Advance Tower, Corvin Technology & Science Park (Corvin 5) and Budapest One Business Park have been designed and will be operated to make a positive impact on employees’ health and wellbeing. The three office complexes located in Budapest, Hungary will offer over 100,000 square meters of office space in total.

Aerium, a European real estate fund manager has disposed of three shopping centres in Poland to Newbridge, a Warsaw-based investment & development firm. The portfolio includes CH Czyzyny and CH Bielawy, both opened in 2002 in the cities of Krakow and Torun, respectively, and CH Guliwer, which has been operating in Lodz since 1997. The assets comprise over 72,000 sqm of gross lettable space and are anchored by Carrefour on a long-term lease.

Power Systems giant Rolls-Royce has appointed Cushman & Wakefield to an expanded role supporting its global property requirements following a competitive tender process.

Prologis has begun construction of a new 28,300 square metre speculative facility at Prologis Park Prague-Uzice in the Czech Republic. It will be the third building at fully occupied park and is scheduled to be completed by mid-2018.

The Warsaw office market recorded the second highest demand in the market's history along with record-breaking net absorption. This perfectly summarizes the sentiments on the city's office market. Furthermore, expectations for 2018 remain highly favourable, JLL reports.