Irish startup Nooka Space has installed its first smart proximity office in the garden of Bucharest-based shopping mall ParkLake. 

Not surpirngly, the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic has driven up interest in the acquisition of holiday homes. Marcin Dumania, CEO of Polish holiday apartment operator Sun & Snow talked to Property Forum about the holiday apartments industry’s struggles with the pandemic, forecasts for the upcoming months and the company’s investment plans.

Investment transactions totaling over €400 million are in different negotiations stages in Romania, mostly in the office and retail segments, according to real estate consultancy JLL Romania. 

During H1 2021, Czech residential developer Central Group has completed the acquisition of land plots in three Prague locations, Žižkov, Hloubětín and Vysočany, for CZK 750 million. It plans to build almost a thousand new apartments on the land.

CPI Hotels has begun the construction of a new Clarion hotel in Brno, near the city’s main train station, local daily Denik reports.

According to Savills, total modern office space in Prague increased slightly in Q2 2021 to 3.73 million sqm. Although subdued and still challenged by uncertainty, Q2 2021 saw a recovery in new supply as 49,500 sqm was delivered to the market across four new projects. Even though a decline of 57% is still visible in y-o-y comparison, new office supply for the second quarter is 10% above the pre-pandemic quarterly average.

Gavin Bonner, Vice President at Genesis Property spoke to Property Forum about the IMMUNE ™ Building Standard, a global certification standard to certify the built environment’s level of immunity to withstand present and future health challenges.

The occupancy level in Prague’s hotels was just 10% during the first six months of this year, with revenue remaining far below the average of the pre-coronavirus years. Contrary to initial expectations, their owners are not selling them – definitely not on a mass scale. Investors’ interest in buying remains strong – more than one-third of them are “very” or “highly” interested in Prague, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s current Hotel Investor Beat survey. Investors obviously trust Prague’s hospitality market and perceive its current situation as temporary.

At the end of Q2 2021, developers were working on projects set to increase Poland’s stock of modern space by more than 3.3 million sqm. This represents a result not previously recorded for a single quarter as there is c.a. 34% more under construction than in the previous quarter

Leasing activity in the Romanian industrial and logistics market was up 21% to 360,000 sqm in the first half compared to the same period of last year, driven by relocations and the closing of new contracts, according to a report by real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.