Hungarian investor Indotek Group has purchased the One Victoriei Center office building in central Bucharest as part of its expansion strategy for an undisclosed sum. 

The office market in Cluj-Napoca is the second largest in Romania following the one in Bucharest and there are eight office buildings with a total leasable area of 130,000 sqm under development that will be completed by 2025, according to real estate consultancy Fortim Trusted Advisors, part of BNP Paribas Real Estate Alliance. 

Cushman & Wakefield continues its partnership with GTC to provide community building services for the company’s office buildings. By coordinating its activities as part of its proprietary “WakeApp Your Office” scheme, Cushman & Wakefield is responding to the challenges experienced by office tenants and landlords in encouraging employees to return to the office post-pandemic.

AFI Europe Romania has secured the LEED Platinum precertification for AFI Tech Park 2, the second phase of the AFI Tech Park office development located in Bucharest. The developer worked with Colliers on the certification process.

In line with the growing popularity of flexible and hybrid work models, many companies are relocating, changing size and trying to re-fitting their offices. This could be one of the reasons why Prague placed second in the CEE region in terms of the price of fitting out an office. Nevertheless, the key reasons are the tightening supply chain and challenges around labour, which are set to continue well in 2022 and beyond. The average costs per sqm in Prague are currently €1,037, which is half of what it is in top German cities or in the UK where the median cost exceeded €2,000, Cushman & Wakefield presents in their report.

According to Walter Herz, the beginning of the year brought a revival in demand for offices. Katowice now has a larger offer than Poznań and rental rates for the best space in Warsaw have increased.

It's been a good, strong start to 2022 in Poland's office market, which offers hope that a long-awaited boom in demand is coming after a market slump. Companies have adapted to the new working conditions, and due to the easing of restrictions related to the covid-19 pandemic, they have launched a campaign to encourage employees back into offices. On the other hand, Warsaw and the eight largest regional markets, i.e., Kraków, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, and Lublin, may face a slowdown in new supply in the coming months. AXI IMMO looks at the current trends after Q1 2022 in the office market and analyses what will influence its development in the following months of the year.

New office supply in regional cities in Poland hit a record high of 243,500 sqm in Q1 2022, representing an uplift of 5% on the previous peak in Q4 2019, reveals Savills. More new office space was delivered in the first three months of this year alone than in the whole of 2021.

The Prague office market in Q1 2022 experienced a further increase in vacancy, across the entire city. However, gross take-up recorded a year-on-year increase of 44% and thus returned to pre-pandemic levels. The increase in prices throughout the city is still felt especially in construction projects, mainly due to rising costs for materials and construction work, reports the Czech branch of Colliers in their regular survey.

According to the latest, fourth edition of a survey conducted by Zymetria (an analytical and research company) on behalf of Skanska's commercial development business unit, after two years of the coronavirus pandemic, 9 out of 10 Polish office employees believe that the traditional office is irreplaceable. Today, more than half of Poles work in a hybrid model – this translates to an almost double increase compared to May 2021. In addition, the hybrid is also the most preferred way of working – it is favoured by 70% of the respondents.