Free office space is dwindling in the Czech Republic. The office vacancy rate in Brno, as well as in Prague, has slipped below 10%. Both cities experience the lowest rate of vacant offices in the last decade. Brno recorded a sharp decline by 2.4 percentage points in H1 2017, while in the capital demand totalled 153,500 sqm in Q2 2017, up 45% on the previous quarter and 36.9% year-on-year. Overall, more than 370 deals were closed in Prague in H1 2017, many of which were pre-leases. In contrast, in Brno there was an 8% drop in lettings compared to H2 2016.

After completion of the second part of the construction in Panattoni Park Cheb, Tchibo has opened an expanded distribution centre for its e-shop. The rentable space increased from 39,000 sqm to 73,000 sqm. This means that in Cheb has grown the second largest logistics hall in the Czech Republic and Tchibo’s largest distribution centre in Central and Eastern Europe. Operations of the first part of the building were commenced on 2 December last year and the site these days just dispatched its millionth parcel.

The Romanian commercial property market has turned over a new leaf in recent years. Thanks to growing interest from international investors 2017 is set to become a record year on the Romanian investment market. The industrial market is among the segments growing especially strongly with one player in particular expanding its portfolio rapidly. Ana Dumitrache, Co-Country Head of CTP Romania shared her take on the Romanian market.

Colliers International strengthens its office spaces consultancy team by hiring Sebastian Dragomir for the position of Office Advisory Director. Sebastian Dragomir has over 12 years of experience in real estate, time during which he has worked on the office, industrial, land and landlord representation segments and formerly occupied the position of Senior Leasing Manager at Immofinanz Romania.

Cushman & Wakefield was appointed manager of 18 commercial properties in Poland owned by German Deka Immobilien. The properties comprise 473,363 sqm.

Skanska has acquired the Key office project in Prague’s Pankrác district from ČSAD Praha Holding for an undisclosed sum. The developer plans to start construction works before year-end.

P3 is constructing a new 61,000 sqm building at P3 Piotrków park in Central Poland. Its main tenant will be Kuehne + Nagel, which will occupy 56,000 sqm of space. The facility is scheduled for completion in January 2018.

Helaba, Berlin Hyp and pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank have jointly underwritten an investment facility totaling €370 million to refinance the Warsaw Spire Office complex. The assets are owned by the newly established Ghelamco European Property Fund. The transaction closed in August 2017. Helaba, Berlin Hyp and pbb are acting as joint lead arrangers providing equal portions of the funding, with Helaba acting as facility and security agent of the transaction.

Delta Holding subsidiary Delta Real Estate, in cooperation with AP investments, has finalised the acquisition of a shopping mall in Varna, Bulgaria. The project is worth €120 million and it will be completed in May 2018.

Július Hájek joins CTP as a new Head of Marketing. Július will be responsible for marketing strategy and execution as well as PR activities in all CTP markets throughout central Europe.