900,000 sqm of office space was delivered to market in Poland in 2016 – the market's best ever result. Furthermore, demand was 1.34 million sqm. Kraków and Wrocław remain the leaders among office markets outside Warsaw, while an excellent result was recorded by Łódź.JLL summarised 2016 on the office market in both Warsaw and the other eight major cities in Poland.

TriGranit, celebrating its 20th anniversary in business in 2017, will this year launch its newest development in Budapest, the Millennium Gardens office building that will provide 37,000 sqm GLA for future tenants from H2 2019 on the banks of the Danube, next to MÜPA and the prospective Congress Centre. In 2017, the company also plans to start the development of Building H, the eighth building in its office complex in Krakow, Bonarka for Business (B4B), providing 10,000 sqm GLA, and plans to start the second phase of Lakeside Park in Slovakia with 13,000 sqm GLA. 

All segments of the Hungarian commercial property market have shown signs of strong growth over the last couple of years. Developers embark on a record number of new projects, but most of them soon realise that construction will take more time and be a lot more costly than they initially anticipated. The latest Tea & Talk session, organised by RICS Hungary in Budapest, helped us understand how rising construction costs and labour shortage in construction can be tackled.

This spring the Iulius Company will start the construction works for three new Class A office buildings within the Openville Timişoara mixed-use project, located in the vicinity of Iulius Mall. The three buildings to be developed under the United Business Center (UBC) brand add up to a total area of 73,000 sqm and shall be ready to use within a 12 to 18 months’ term.

Cushman & Wakefield has been selected to act as property manager for the Grójecka Offices building currently under construction in Warsaw’s Ochota district. The new office building located at 206 Grójecka street will comprise 7 400 sqm of Class A office space and it will be completed in Q2 2017.

Skanska Property Czech Republic is expanding its portfolio by completing the acquisition of a plot with a former car repair shop from M2 Real Estate Group, located in the Karlín area of Prague. Skanska plans to build a modern office building called Praga Studios on the property.

IT Services Hungary, the largest ICT employer of Hungary has decided to move its Budapest site to Skanska’s Mill Park, from Q2 2018 and will occupy approx. 17,300 sqm in the second phase of the complex. In the leasing process, ITSH was advised by Colliers International.

Office tenants can look forward to a new supply of administrative space that is going to be delivered to the Prague market in 2017 and 2018. Last´s year paradox, when the economy was booming and the market registered a robust demand for new office space, but the amount of new completions dropped to a historical low, is forecast to be cleared out in the months to come. Currently, there are 330 000 sqm of new offices under construction in Prague out of which approximately half (171 000 sqm) is expected to be delivered this year. JLL looked at the largest office submarkets of the Czech capital in detail.

Futureal Group handed over the Skypark office building as the latest member of the Corvin Promenade. The 25,000 sqm business center boasts the latest technology since it is planned to meet the needs of technology and R&D. 

In 2016, total office stock in Poland’s eight key regional cities (Krakow, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Szczecin and Lublin) rose to nearly 4 million sqm. Krakow, Wrocław and Tricity remain the largest regional office hubs. Office take-up hit nearly 590,000 sqm, which represented a 50% rise on the average for the years 2011–2015. Cushman & Wakefield presented an overview of the Polish regional office market for 2016 in its latest report.