Nikodem Iskra, CEO of Murapol, one of the largest residential developers in Poland, believes that in 2021 the residential market will shake off the effects of the pandemic. He foresees further increases of apartment prices – in his opinion record-low interest rates are not only stimulating the mortgage market, but are also a strong impulse for investment activity

In 2020, demand for office space in regional cities was 16% lower compared to 2019, the vacancy rate increased by 3.2 pp and the volume of office space under construction is at its lowest in about five years. Advisory firm JLL summarizes the situation in the Polish office market at the end of 2020.  

One United Properties announces the lease agreement with Superbet for an 8,206 sqm office space in One Cotroceni Park in Bucharest. 

Element Industrial, owned by businessman Ionuţ Dumitrescu, announces the start of a new project in Buftea Chitila area, near Bucharest. .

Resi4Rent, the largest private company with subscription-based apartments, has expanded its offer by nearly 230 units in Warsaw. The first residents have just moved into the project located in the heart of Mokotów business district.

Ghelamco has started preparations for the construction of The Bridge skyscraper. The building will stand at the intersection of Towarowa and Grzybowska streets, next to Plac Europejski (European Square) in Warsaw.

MLP Group has commenced a project to revitalise the first mid-urban business park in the city of Poznań. The largest of the seven renovated facilities has been leased by a distributor of household appliances and consumer electronics. The renovated facility, with a total area of 12,000 sqm, will be available for occupancy in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Though significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts, the hotel market sees activity and interest from hotel operators. In the CEE & SEE regions, they are showing interest in Prague, Budapest and Warsaw, with a number of smaller regional cities – mostly Polish – also making the top 30. Operators are confident about market recovery, predicting that smaller cities will bounce back in 2022, followed by capitals in 2024.

Oxford Properties Group has agreed to acquire pan-European investment and asset manager M7 Real Estate. The investment is in line with Oxford’s global capital allocation strategy which has seen it both enter new geographic markets and increase its weighting to the logistics, multifamily and life sciences sectors. Across the globe, Oxford is building, buying and growing world-class businesses to meet its capital allocation priorities.

The latest STR figures show that the Prague hotel market has borne the brunt of the coronavirus crisis in Europe. It recorded the steepest decline in average revenue per room in 2020, down 84.6% on the previous year on the back of an average 16.6% annual room occupancy rate. Even so, confidence in the Prague hotel market and its long-term potential is hardly waning, as underscored by the unflagging interest not only among investors, who are always on the lookout for good opportunities to buy but also among hotel operators, who have identified Prague as the main target of their activities. Results reported for last summer, when rules were eased for a while, signalled that the market would be able to recover relatively quickly once the restrictions are lifted. Complete recovery, however, is not expected until 2024.