In 2020, office take-up hit its lowest level in ten years amid pandemic headwinds despite the largest-ever single lease contract signed to date and one of the highest volumes of new office space coming onto the Warsaw market on record, says real estate advisory firm Savills. Rents remained resilient and the overall vacancy rate is still below the levels last seen during the previous supply peak five years ago.

Skanska’s has commenced construction on its new project in Prague’s Holešovice district. Based on an architectural design by the DAM.architekti studio, Port7 will include 3 new administrative buildings, which upon planned completion in the second quarter of 2023 will offer 35,000 sqm of office and retail space.

Any investor who observes the real estate market right now is likely to start with warehouse assets. This trend has already been visible, but the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated it to an astonishing degree, says Robert Dobrzycki, Chief Executive Officer of Panattoni who talked to Property Forum about the driving forces behind the growth of the warehouse market.

Based on independent external appraisals, CA Immo expects a property valuation effect of approx. €205 million (€2.07 per share) for the fourth quarter. The increase in value will more than compensate for the valuation loss of €21.5 million (€0.22 per share) booked in the first three quarters of 2020.

The total investment volume achieved in 2020 in the SEE region amounted to €766 million representing a 17% decline in transaction volume in comparison to the year before, according to CBRE’s market report summarising H2 2020 on the investment market.

Panattoni has launched its latest park in Poland’s Małopolska region. Panattoni Park Kraków East II will be situated on the eastern side of the Kraków conurbation, just off the Targowisko junction of the A4 motorway, and is to have an area of ​​almost 19,000 sqm. Panattoni’s presence in the region has since expanded to 4 existing projects with a total area of ​​100,000 sqm. As soon as late July or early August this year, the first tenant, Kenig Spedition, will be moving into 9,200 sqm of the complex, which will be used for logistics, service and production processes for its clients – manufacturers of pallets and packaging. The lease was mediated by consultancy Axi Immo.

In 2020 the coronavirus pandemic pushed Poland into its first recession in 30 years following a GDP contraction of around 2.8%. According to Moody’s forecasts, implications of the second wave of the pandemic will reverberate through the economy also during the first quarter of 2021. The second quarter is, however, likely to see a recovery and this year’s GDP growth is expected to reach approximately 4%. Cushman & Wakefield summarised 2020 on the Warsaw office market.

CTP is extending its Romanian team with the appointment of Gijs Klomp as the new Head of Business Development. Klomp brings extensive knowledge of the industrial real estate market in Romania, where CTP owns and manages a market-leading 1.5 million sqm portfolio. Klomp's main task in his new role will be expanding it over 2 million sqm by the end of 2021. Klomp will also work with the M&A team of CTP, who has just confirmed its target of reaching a 10 million sqm portfolio by 2023.

Polish company Scallier is developing a new chain of retail parks in Romania under the Funshop Park brand with the first three expected to open this year. Wojciech Jurga, Managing Partner at Scallier provided an update on the company’s development plans and talked about the differences between the Polish and Romanian markets.

2020 was a channelling year for investors and asset managers but also a chance to lay a new foundation for tenant relationships. Vladimír Bolek, Portfolio Management, Member of the Board at IAD Investments talked to Property Forum about the effects of the pandemic and shared his investment strategy for 2021.