Skanska has acquired the 61-meter Waterworks office building in Budapest. The developer is demolishing the 26,000 sqm office building which dates from 1981. Later on, Skanska plans to develop a modern, visionary office complex in the same location.

The boom continues. At the end of H1 2018, supply on Poland’s office markets exceeded 10 million sqm. Furthermore, 1.8 million sqm remains under construction, with 1.1 million sqm being developed outside Warsaw. JLL summarised the situation on the Polish office market in H1 2018.

Real estate developers pay special attention to the environment by developing efficient and sustainable, green certified projects. With a history of almost four years, the WELL Building Standard complements these certifications and shifts the attention from the built environment to the health of the employees. In Romania, this phenomenon is in its inception and Colliers International Romania is the first real estate consultancy company with a team of WELL professionals – two out of the five that are present on a national level.

The share of vacant office space on Prague’s office market increased to 6.9% at the end of Q2 2018, which is in 0.7 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter. Prime headline rents in the city centre also slightly increase. The Prague Research Forum announced the office market figures for Q1 2018.

BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland represented First Property in the successful acquisition of Krakow Business Park (KBP).

Leasing activity in the Budapest office market remained strong with more than 253,000 sqm of office space leased in the first half of 2018. In total, commercial real estate agencies were involved in 173,000 sqm of office leasing transactions, from which CBRE completed the largest amount of transactions, 42,245 sqm equating to 24.4% market share in the agents market.

Last June, Cushman & Wakefield was appointed as an exclusive commercialisation agent for building “B” of the LIXA office complex being developed by Yareal in Warsaw’s Wola district. The first phase of the development project (buildings A and B) comprising 27,900 sqm of leasable space is expected to be delivered to the market in Q3 2020.

Bulgarian Real Estate Fund plans to invest €33 million in the construction of an office building in state-owned Sofia Tech Park. At first, the project will be financed with the proceeds from the company's planned capital increase, while at a later stage the construction works will be financed through loan financing.

Immofinanz has leased a total of over 15,000 sqm in Bucharest in the first half of this year. This is equivalent to 8% of its current overall leasable office space in Romania. The company has attracted new tenants for 8,300 sqm of office space and extended contracts for an additional 7,500 sqm in six of its office properties.

Skanska has invested €52 million in the first phase of an office development in Wrocław, Poland. The first phase with a total leasable area of around 26,000 square meters will consist of two buildings, 15 and six stories high, with a shared two-level underground parking lot.