The headline RICS Commercial Property Sentiment Index (CPSI) holds steady in the latest survey for Q2 2024, while the outlook for secondary offices and retail remains particularly negative in many markets.

Despite an increasing vacancy rate in the office market reaching 14.2 per cent and sale stagnation in the residential segment in 2023, the Alto Group has now announced a net consolidated profit after tax of €8.5 million. 

The Czech industrial RE market has experienced a record growth of interest in renting new premises, especially from companies linked to e-commerce triggering extensive speculative construction. Although the market situation is stable and positively influenced by the gradual reduction of construction costs in combination with yield stabilisation, recently the vacancy rate has slightly increased and two new phenomena have emerged on the market.

According to data from BuiltMind, demand for new housing in Bratislava is growing. Q2 2024 Bratislava residential market report has shown an appetite for new residential units in Slovak capital.

Drees & Sommer has released its Innovation Scouting Report 2024 this week. This year, in terms of technology trends and relevance, Trend Radar1 has placed AI first with 23.4%, big data analytics second with 15.3%, and Internet of Things (IoT) third with 11.9%, followed closely by cloud computing and digital twin.

A Luxembourg court has definitively confirmed the conclusions of the Luxembourg Commission for the Supervision of the Financial Market. As per the verdict, Radovan Vítek's companies had been engaged in manipulation during the takeover of developer Orco, Seznamzpravy.cz reports.

The debt markets in Europe remain resilient. An extensive survey by CBRE among 130 companies shows that the lending environment is on a solid footing for when investment activity starts to pick up in the second half of 2024. Nearly two-thirds of respondents expect a recovery compared to last year with refinancing being the main source of demand. Industrial and multifamily are the preferred sectors for lending, with student accommodation and hotels seeing the strongest increase in demand.

According to the report by Savills and Statista (statista.com), the European AI market is expected to reach €76.5 billion this year, up by 25.9% compared to 2023. The annual growth rate is expected to be 15.9% until 2030. These numbers confirm that artificial intelligence is gaining traction across industrial sectors, and data centres will be no exception. 

Construction management in the Czech Republic is entering a new, digital era. The long-awaited change has not been easy. Having not enough time to get acquainted with the new regulations and digital systems, both sides, building authorities and builders are struggling, reports E15.cz.

The development of new communication channels and increasing customer demands mean that effective real estate marketing requires an ever-increasing investment in quality - this is just one of the conclusions reached by the participants of the panel discussion on real estate marketing, which took place as part of the June conference Future of Real Estate 2024 in Warsaw. The event was co-organised by Property Forum and RICS.