In less than five months, the new building code for common buildings in the Czech Republic is going to enter into force. However, clouds are gathering around it. Builders are afraid of the shortcomings they have encountered recently when familiarizing themselves with the new requirements of the legislation, reports Seznamzpravy.cz.

Sylvie Geuten-Carpentier, Managing Partner at Mitiska REIM, talked to Property Forum about the current state of affairs in the Polish investment market, recent activities of Mitiska in CEE countries and the rising attractiveness of the retail park sector.

The construction of Bratislava Vydrica by Lucron is progressing. Currently, the sale of offices in office building V3 on the Danube embankment has been launched.

According to a recent report published by Newmark Polska, total office take-up in 2023 in the largest Polish regional cities surpassed 741,300 sqm - an increase of almost 19% year-on-year and 7% from the pre-pandemic 2019 peak. Meanwhile, issues related to ESG, functionality improvements, efficient office space management and optimisation of lease costs have filtered through into the vocabulary and strategies of tenants and developers alike.

Panattoni has launched work on another project for the retail sector. A distribution centre is to be built in Szczecin with an area of around 54,500 sqm where up to 500 people are going to be employed. The development will be certified under BREEAM for a rating of Outstanding.

In the area of ​​residential real estate, the year 2023 has booked a record as a period of significant sales decline, reports Valuo.cz in its residential real estate analysis. The market has fallen to its lowest level in eight years.

The volume of vacant office space in Warsaw is shrinking as the number of office buildings under construction and delivered to the market is low and occupier demand remains stable, reveals BNP Real Estate Poland in its quarterly report. Meanwhile, older office buildings are undergoing refurbishment as approximately 70% of existing stock is energy inefficient.

The beginning of February has brought a sharp fall in bank rates in the Czech Republic, and housing loans are thus the cheapest in more than a year and a half, E15.cz reports.

Bucharest’s office stock edged close to 3.4 million sqm at the end of 2023, following the completion of projects with a combined area of 110,000 sqm last year. However, the market will see fewer deliveries by the end of 2025 as developers have put projects on hold due to uncertainties around demand caused by the adoption of hybrid work.

Existing office buildings will be increasingly sought after by companies due to a lacklustre development pipeline in Bucharest, which will continue to drive contract extension deals in Bucharest.