A recent report by CBRE and Panattoni Europe confirms a sustained positive outlook for the logistics market in Poland. The Logistics and Supply Chain Confidence Index in Poland stands at 57.4 pts (3.3 pts down from last year). Optimism is higher among logistics companies (64.1 pts) than among manufacturers and traders relying on logistics services (50.4 pts). What is more, as many as 8 out of 10 respondents expect to increase their revenues in the coming 12 months, and 6 out of 10 plan to increase headcount.

The vacancy rate slightly increased on the Budapest industrial market to 3.7%. At the end of the Q3 2018 a total of 76,240 sqm stood vacant, and there are only two existing schemes with more than 5,000 sqm of available warehouse space. The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial market analysis

Panattoni Europe announced a new warehouse and manufacturing project which provides for the construction of a hydraulic components factory for Voss Fluid featuring in excess of 10,000 sqm. The investment is situated at the Legnica Special Economic Zone (LSSE) and uses the BTO (build-to-own) formula. The transaction was mediated by JLL. Completion of construction works is anticipated in March 2019.

Transactions in the logistics sector have been dominating the Prague market this year. In the first half of 2018 alone, the take-up was 24% higher than in the full year 2017, precisely 226,600 sqm. During the same period, the overall gross take-up reached in Prague 408,000 sqm, showing an increase of 56 %. Besides the logistics sector, more than 90,000 sqm was taken by production and 76,000 sqm by distribution. The biggest new deal in Prague in the logistics sector was done by cargo-partner ČR, which signed a lease agreement for 12,450 sqm located in a stand-alone industrial building in the Logicor Prague Airport logistic park. The company will start operating from the new premises at the beginning of 2019. Cushman & Wakefield facilitated the lease of the premises.

Panattoni Europe has laid the cornerstone to mark the beginning of the construction of a dishwasher factory for BSH Sprzęt Gospodarstwa Domowego, dedicated to Industry 4.0. The facility, featuring close to 58,500 sqm, is being built in Łódź next to the Central European Logistics Hub and is the developer’s largest manufacturing project. Completion of construction works and handover of the facility to the investor is planned for the beginning of 2019, and first appliances will leave the factory in mid-2019.

Logistics company PartnersPol Group ordered 22,200 square meters of modern warehouse space in MLP Teresin. The delivery of the finished facility to PartnersPol Group is planned for January 2019. AXI IMMO acted as an intermediary in this transaction.

Dunwel has brokered a 20,000 sqm transaction between Ursus Breweries and WDP in Buzău, Eastern Romania.

Over the next six months, Prologis will bring to market nine modern, sustainable buildings in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The developer currently has nine logistics facilities under construction in CEE totalling around 200,000 square meters of space.

LiNK Hradec Králové, the first of a number of planned industrial and logistics projects by LinkCity Czech Republic and Cromwell Property Group, has been completed.

According to Colliers International’s EMEA Industrial & Logistics Hubs report, demand for industrial and warehouse property rose in 50% of EMEA markets in H1 2018, up from 35% in H2 2017, driven by positive occupier sentiment, and despite challenges in the overall economy such as protectionism fears and trade tensions between the US and close trading partners in the EU.