Hungarian residential developer Cordia plans to hand over a record number of homes this year in Hungary. Thanks to an expanded government family support scheme and the re-introduction of a 5% VAT rate on residential property, the company expects sustained strong demand and will therefore increase its offer by more than 800 new homes as part of several developments. Work is continuing uninterrupted while protective measures are observed, with full online customer service introduced last year.

Passerinvest Group has sold the Nová Karolina Park office building in the centre of Ostrava. The new owner is locally based investment group RT TORAX Group.

A year into the pandemic, almost 55% of employees are working partially or exclusively from the office. 4 in 10 say they are satisfied with their current way of working, a study from Romanian Genesis Property shows.

Element Industrial announces the appointment of Andrei Jerca as Managing Director of the company. Prior to this position, Jerca was Head of Industrial Services within CBRE Romania.

Two new industrial buildings with a total area of 38,000 sqm are planned to be built in Bialystok. With a total investment of more than €33 million Accolade continues to develop its portfolio in Eastern Poland. The first tenant of the Class A warehouse will be InPost, a Polish-based complex logistics operator. Building A, which will be built during the first phase of the project, will be handed over to the tenant in September.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly changed the model of work around the world, attitudes on this matter are still visibly evolving – since the first wave of the lockdown until today the number of people working only from the office has increased by 26%. Almost half of employees go to the office every day, despite over 60% of respondents claiming that they do have comfortable working conditions at home. Employees in all surveyed countries indicated the ability to maintain a work-life balance and have direct conversations with co-workers as the biggest advantages of working in the office. These are only some of the conclusions drawn from a study conducted on behalf of Skanska office development unit in CEE.

The activity on the Bulgarian real estate market was strongly affected by the COVID-19 crisis, but we saw more resilience for the investment and industrial sectors which registered both an increase during the last year. For 2021, the forecasts are still positive for the investment property market and for the industrial development sector, according to the Sofia City Report H2 2020, released by JLL Romania with the support of IPC Partners Bulgaria.

Budapest’s housing market is becoming more eventful for used and newly-built homes alike as sales have started to pick up in early 2021. As a result, developers sold more than 1,600 new homes between December 2020 and February 2021, nearly half the total number of new homes sold last year. At this rate, total sales figures may even double this year. As usual, most new homes were sold in Budapest's District 13, but the Inner Pest districts have also attracted large numbers of buyers. Data from the Budapest Housing Market Report by Eltinga and Ecorys reveals the number of new homes sold early this year in various locations.

Investors and developers from all over the world are in a race for a slice of Poland's rapidly-developing warehouse market cake. Property Forum takes a look at the new and expanding players that have made headlines in recent months.

Part of the Glamox Group, ES-SYSTEM, a producer and supplier of professional lighting systems, has decided to let nearly 11,500 sqm of modern warehouse and office space in the 7R Park Poznań East logistics centre. The tenant was represented in the negotiation process by AXI IMMO consultants.