Panattoni has appointed Mathieu Giguere as Director for Key Accounts & New Business Development. He will be responsible for acquiring new business and markets in light of the dynamic growth in online trade.

The first quarter of 2020 ended on the industrial market with good results on both the demand and supply side. Poland’s total warehouse stock surpassed the 19 million sqm mark, reveals a report by Cushman & Wakefield.

Since the first COVID-19 cases in Poland were diagnosed, analyses and reflections on the impact of the pandemic on the real estate industry have been conducted. One of the most interesting issues is the situation on the office market, especially if we take into account the changing needs of companies and their employees. Property managers and owners try to be constantly updated to meet the expectations of tenants and support their business. Marta Wiewiórowska-Kudła, Leasing Manager at Hines Polska summarised how this market has developed recently and what may change in the future.

Poland’s total industrial stock at the end of Q1 2020 amounted to over 18.95 million sqm (+15% y/y). The quarter’s solid results were driven by steady tenant demand as well as stable rental rates, which despite the growing COVID-19 pandemic maintained their height in most markets. On the investment side, only in Q1 2020, the volume of transactions was comparable with the whole of 2019.

Although plans related to the introduction of new projects will now be thoroughly verified, investors' interest in the hotel sector in Poland is still high. The latest report by consulting company Walter Herz shows that the number of categorized hotel facilities in Poland has increased by over 30% since 2012.

The industrial sector is considered one of the most resilient to the negative economic consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak as it benefits from the growing popularity of online shopping, especially in recent weeks. Although there is not much difference between market data for Q1 2020 and Q1 2019, opportunities and risks for the logistics sector resulting from the current situation will not be known until later months, depending on how the pandemic unfolds, according to Savills.

Profi, one of the largest retail chains in Romania, expands its logistic activities by contracting two new projects in Timisoara (58,000 sqm) and Craiova (57,000 sqm), which will be developed and rented out by Belgian logistics developer WDP. JLL has advised Profi in both transactions, thus continuing the partnership started few years ago, which resulted in 250,000 sqm of logistics space contracted in Bucharest, Roman, Cluj, Craiova and Timisoara.

Electro-IT and home & deco online retailers take up approximately 370,000 sqm of storage space and this volume could increase by at least 50% in the next two years, due to the development of online commerce, reveals the Romania e-commerce research report launched by CBRE.

The COVID-19 pandemic has to put a halt to years of uninterrupted growth on the Romanian property investment market. Andrei Vacaru, Head of Capital Markets at JLL Romania shared his market outlook with Property Forum.

UniCredit Bank Austria's Purchasing Managers' Index sink to a record low of 31.6 points in April. A strong rebound is expected from Q3 2020 after the easing of lockdown restrictions.