The modern retail stock in Romania, consisting of shopping centres, retail parks and commercial galleries with a leasable area of ​​at least 5,000 square meters, has reached 3.96 million square meters and will exceed the 4 million sqm threshold until the end of the year, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Total office market demand reached 335,000 sqm in H1 2020 on the Warsaw office market. In fact, demand for office space in Q2 was significantly higher than in Q1. Vacancy rates across Warsaw increased slightly by 0.1 p.p., with 770,000 sqm under construction. JLL summarised the Warsaw office market in H1 2020.

Panattoni is to build an advanced hi-tech manufacturing and warehouse complex for AZZ Specialty Welding Europe, a provider of specialised welding services for customers in various business sectors, including fossil power, refining, waste-to-energy, chemical processing and nuclear power. The 12,820 sqm facility will be located in Radom. The construction project is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2020, while the tenant should be able to move in in March 2021.

Simultaneously with the opening of the R7 motorway section in Southern Slovakia, the Log Center R7 logistics centre project gained its building permit for its 30,000 sqm logistics hall. The project is developed by Austrian developer Go Asset.

ConvergenCE has been appointed the exclusive contract to support the owner, HB Reavis to lease the Agora Tower office building which recently opened on Budapest’s Váci Road office corridor.

According to data from the Polish Council of Shopping Centers, footfall in shopping malls range from 62 to 73% when compared to last year’s numbers. The pandemic has changed the habits of Poles who are planning their shopping in a more thoughtful, cautious and safe way. In the new reality, small-format shops located close to home are attracting more visitors. By the end of May and after negotiations between owners and tenants had been completed, almost all shops in retail parks were operating. Some of these shops are now recording a turnover of 160% of pre-lockdown levels.

From July 2020, KGAL Investment Management Group GmbH, based in Germany, has appointed Savills as local asset manager for DRN, an office complex on Národní St., Prague 1.

AFI Europe Romania has finalized and completely sold phase I of AFI City, the first residential project developed by the company in Romania. The first phase consists of 190 apartments and 228 parking lots, and is located in northern Bucharest, in the Bucurestii Noi neighborhood.

New housing has become more expensive in most European countries over the last years, including 2019. Among 23 countries participating in Deloitte Property Index Study, 20 showed growth in prices of new dwellings and only three of them saw a price decrease. Experts in the residential real estate market expected the growth trend to continue in 2020, but they became less optimistic in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, in almost half of participating countries, the residential market is expected to stagnate this year in terms of price and experts in only six countries have positive expectations.

The Medezin factory has started production in a 7R investment in Konstantynów Łódzki, Poland. This is the second brand that belongs to the Pelion Group, the largest healthcare company in Poland, which operates in the 7R Park Łódź West I. The storage area for Medezin was designed in the BTS formula and was adapted to the specific needs of the pharmaceutical industry.