The Hungarian construction industry started off this year with an exceptionally high Activity Start indicator: nearly HUF 1,300 billion worth of construction works started in Q1 2022. The Activity Start of EBI Construction Activity Report in the first quarter is a new record (construction works have never started in such a high value in one quarter) and exceeded the level of Q2 2021 (the highest so far) by almost 37%. Yet, this spike is mainly thanks to the launch of two major infrastructure projects, according to the EBI Construction Activity Report, prepared by Buildecon, Eltinga (creation of indicators and development of algorithms for aggregation) and iBuild (project research and project database).

According to Yasen Georgiev from EPI, EECFA Bulgaria, like elsewhere in the EECFA countries that are not directly impacted by the war in Ukraine, the construction market in Bulgaria entered a period of an increasing unpredictability. What stands behind is an interplay between domestic and external factors.

The city of Ljubljana is expected to see some major urban change by 2025. As it was announced last month, a huge mixed-use project will be built next to the city’s planned new transportation hub, including a hotel, a shopping centre, offices and apartments. The Emonika project, which has a long history, will be developed by Mendota Invest, owned by Hungary’s OTP Real Estate Investment Fund. Property Forum summarised what we know about the project so far and how it could potentially transform Slovenia’s small and illiquid commercial real estate market.

The war launched by Russia on February 24th is still going on in Ukraine. Infrastructure facilities are being damaged every day. The cost of damages that experts share changes daily. According to the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the total expenses for reconstruction will range from $220 billion to $540 billion, writes Anna Nestulia, Principal at Invest in Projects for Property Forum.

The beginning of the year was marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine which caused various obstacles to the Slovak economy. It pushes inflation up to the highest in 17 years as also the prices of food, housing and energy. Nevertheless, the lifted lockdown measures helped boost retail sales and new office leases surpassed renegotiations for the sixth quarter in a row. Experts also saw a record quarter with substantial take-up and plunging vacancy rates, Cushman & Wakefield Slovakia presents in their new report on the Slovak economy.

The beginning of Q1 2022 has brought record numbers. €898 million was invested into Czech real estate assets in Q1 2022, demonstrating a 210% year-on-year increase. Without the c. €1.3 billion Residomo transaction which was closed in Q1 2020, this quarter's investment volume would be the highest since Q1 2019, Savills' latest research shows.

Geopolitical tensions hurt demand for commercial property, appetite for property development, financing conditions and property investment decisions over the short run, the Hungarian National Bank (MNB) reports.

The Central & Eastern European real estate market has registered an investment volume of €2.8 billion in Q1 2022, up 44% year-on-year. By volume, the lion’s share of the deals was realised in Poland (59%) and the Czech Republic (32%). Cushman & Wakefield has summed up the investment market in the CEE region.

Serbia’s construction market was booming when the economic and geopolitical situation changed, so the complicating circumstances in the world are stifling the potential growth and slowing down the ongoing recovery. Inflationary pressures have exploded with the start of the war in Ukraine and the effects of the current crisis are still unforeseeable, writes Dejan Krajinović from Beobuild Core d.o.o. for EECFA Serbia.

As the pandemic forced many of us to shift a work-from-home routine, some people predicted that “the office is a dead concept” and that it will never return. I would agree that the office as we knew it is actually really dead, but the “new office” is here and all of us need to adapt to it, writes Petr Florián, Associate Director, Office Leasing at Avison Young in the Czech Republic for Property Forum in an opinion piece.