According to the latest data from Cushman & Wakefield, the average retail vacancy rate in Poland’s largest cities currently stands at 3.5%, down by 1.2 pp year-on-year. More importantly, falls were recorded in six out of the eight largest cities, with the availability of retail space at the lowest in Kraków, Łódź and Szczecin. This suggests a gradual retail recovery in Poland, says Cushman & Wakefield. Meanwhile, as the market continues to stabilize, retail landlords should increasingly turn their focus onto diversifying their offer.

Vastint Poland is launching its first project in the Private Rented Sector (PRS). The Pastelowo estate will be built on Pastelowa Street in Poznań, in the immediate vicinity of the Business Garden complex. The development includes 255 apartments, which will be entirely for long-term rental. The project will be ready in early 2025, at which time the first contracts with future tenants are scheduled to be signed.

Romanian company Rock Development Holding has obtained the construction permit for its first five-star hotel in Poaiana Brașov which will attract an investment of €70 million.

Romanian developer Forte Partners has delivered the second phase of its U•Center 2 office project in Bucharest. The building has a leasable area of 35,000 sqm and 28,000 sqm have already been occupied by office and retail tenants.

There are currently more than 56,000 sqm of office space in Prague available for immediate occupation. These are mainly office spaces that have been vacated by their previous tenants due to relocation to new premises or downsizing because of the transition to a hybrid office model. Companies that want to get up and running quickly in their new offices and make substantial savings on the capital costs required for fit-out have plenty to choose from. This secondary supply is a good complement to the shortage of available office space in new buildings that Prague is currently facing, according to the Cushman & Wakefield report.

A new generous public space has been created on the banks of the Vltava River in Karlin, easily accessible from Holešovice thanks to the HolKa footbridge. The entire area managed by CA Immo is now called Riverside Karlín. Since September, a new kindergarten has been open there, which is also accessible to families from the surrounding area, and the developer is preparing other services that have been lacking in the locality so far. The River Rink, which has been transformed from an ice rink into a place where other cultural and sporting activities take place, is already open all year round. 

The construction of the seven-storey Roztyly Plaza office building in Prague 11 has reached its final stage. Passerinvest is finishing its cladding, internal installations and landscaping. It is expected to be completed in early 2024.

With interest rates forecasted to decrease across Europe in 2024, real estate investment activity is set to increase in Romania as well as in other countries in the region. Andrei Văcaru, Head of Capital Markets CEE at iO Partners talked to Property Forum about the movers and shakers of the Romanian investment market.

Trei Real Estate has just presented its mid-year financials for 2023. Despite a difficult market environment for developers, Trei continues its developments of residential real estate in Germany, Poland and the United States as well as of retail real estate in Poland. The development pipeline amounted to a total value of €1.9 billion by 30 June 2022, which represents a drop of c. €100 million since 31 December 2022. The decline is essentially explained by the completion of three retail parks in Poland as well as by the completion and the highly successful sale of the “Atlantic Beach House” residential project in Charleston/South Carolina, whose disposal generated around 35 per cent IRR for Trei. Out of the total development pipeline of €1.9 billion, the residential use class accounts for €1.7 billion while retail developments in Poland account for €200 million.

Panattoni has developed a BTS centre for the Tenneco Group in Gliwice. The European Engineering Centre is to serve the company as a research and development centre for new technologies and Monroe products including conventional drive control systems (Monroe OE Solutions) and advanced suspension systems (Monroe Intelligent Suspension). Around 240 engineers are to work in the new 10,000 sqm centre to support both the leading automotive manufacturers and the other manufacturing centres of the Group.