During the third quarter, three new office buildings were completed with a total area of 39,570 sqm – reports JLL in their latest Budapest Office Market Pulse. The increasing development activity has had an effect on the vacancy rate as well: the Budapest office market’s vacancy rate made a slight increase to 10.9% as a result of the vacant space in the newly completed buildings and in the buildings from where the tenants moved out.

Panalpina Polska, an air and sea freight company, leased a 630 sqm office in the West Station I building. A team of BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts advised the tenant during the negotiation process with HB Reavis. Panalpina Polska will be moving in the first quarter of 2017 and taking up space on the 12th floor of the building.

Celanese Hungary Ltd. is setting up its new 4,200 sqm headquarters in Promenade Gardens as of April 2018. The decision was made prior to the foundation stone being laid for the new office building on inner Váci út. The regional financial and logistics business service center of the international company found its new home on the 1st and 2nd floors of the modern, 4-tower building (in cores B, C and D).

The foundation stone for the new Magyar Telekom Headquarters has been laid in Budapest on 15 November. The 58,000 sqm office building is expected to be completed in the second half of 2015 and will be leased by Magyar Telekom for at least 15 years. Upon completion it will become the largest single-block office building in Hungary.

Construction of the first of two West Station office buildings, located in the immediate vicinity of the new Warszawa Zachodnia railway station, has completed. The complex, seen from both Jerozolimskie Ave. and all passing trains, will soon welcome its first occupiers. Its developer, international real estate company HB Reavis, signed a loan contract to refinance the project.

V17, a new office building located at the beginning of the Váci corridor in Budapest has officially opened. The seven-storey sustainable building offers nearly 13,000 square meters Class A office space, most of which is let to E.ON Hungary Zrt. for long term. V17 is owned by Torony Ingatlan Befektetési Alap represented by Diófa Alapkezelő Zrt., and was developed by Hungarian commercial real estate developer WING Zrt. Building V17 required a HUF10 billion investment.

The Polish unit of Swedish IT company Cybercom has leased over 2,500 sqm of space in the Nowa Fabryczna office building developed by Skanska in the city of Łódź. JLL advised Cybercom on the leasing process.

Today one quarter of modern office buildings in Budapest have a sustainability evaluation certification, and even among the older office buildings a growing number apply new technologies. Almost all new real estate entrants offer architectural and environmental management solutions to their future tenant, says a report by CBRE.

Horizon Development has laid the cornerstone for its new office project. Promenade Gardens, located on Budapest’s Váci Road, is expected to be completed in Q4 2017.

The vacancy rate has increased for the first time in two years on the Budapest office market in Q3 2016. Still, net absorption reached a positive volume, reflecting a healthy market environment. The Budapest Research Forum has published its quarterly office market analysis.