The Slovak construction market is the smallest among the member countries of the Euroconstruct area. Due to its size, it is significantly more affected by both favourable and unfavourable influences. Overall, the private sector contributes more to construction investment than the public sector. With one exception, civil engineering, where public investment is higher. In residential construction private investment exceeds public. This can be attributed to a widely neglected public rental housing programme in Slovakia, writes Radovan Kostelník from ÚEOS Komercia in his study for the independent organization Euroconstruct that unites research organisations from 19 EU countries.

CPI Property Group reported first-quarter profit growth of 243 percent year-on-year to €381 million (roughly CZK 9.4 billion). It was able to do so thanks to its takeover of Austria's Immofinanz, which owns a number of commercial properties. CPI now owns 76.86 percent of the shares in this Austrian company. As a result, CPI is currently the Central European leader in real estate and is planning further expansion with the Austrian real estate company S Immo, where it now controls 42.6 per cent along with Immofinanz.

Geopolitical and economic challenges are not leaving the commercial real estate market unaffected. But how will these major global changes impact the Czech investment market in 2022? This is the question an expert panel, moderated by Mark Richardson (Colliers), at Prague Property Forum 2022 tried to answer.

Immofinanz’s like-for-like rental income rose by 4.3% in the first quarter of 20221, the occupancy rate remained high at 94.4%, and FFO 1 before tax was stable at a very good level of €34.4 million. Net profit totalled €72.4 million, compared with a substantial positive effect in the first quarter of the previous year from the revaluation of the stake in S Immo. With an equity ratio of 52.3% and a conservative debt level with a net LTV of 32.7%, Immofinanz has a strong capital foundation.

With profitable sales of non-strategic properties and good progress in the implementation of the development pipeline, CA Immo's operating performance remained stable in the first quarter, seamlessly from the previous quarters. The strong sales result combined with lower indirect costs led to an increase in operating profit of around 6%. In addition, a significant increase in revaluation results helped to more than triple consolidated net income compared with the previous year.

The volume of investment deals in the Polish market of industrial and logistics properties in the first quarter of 2022 was €191 million. And although the current economic situation and the high level of uncertainty related to the war in Ukraine pose new challenges for the logistics sector, in the long term, there will be no significant changes in terms of the volume of demand and supply. However, the growth rate of this part of the market may be lower than in previous years, according to the 7R and Colliers report “Logistics and Industrial Sector: Development Paths from the 2022 Perspective”.

As governments across Europe are ending Covid-related restrictions, business must also redefine their workplace strategies. Forcing people to return to the office full-time after long months of lockdowns might not be the most effective strategy and the idea of a full-time WFH also only works in very specific cases, says flex office provider New Work in its latest analysis.

In the first quarter of 2022, MLP Group almost doubled its net profit, which came in at PLN 29.7 million, having increased 84% year on year.

User data is highly valuable for smart buildings to create the best user experience possible and to help achieve ESG goals. The possibilities are endless and their only limit is related to privacy settings. Recently, Property Forum was invited to visit Drees & Sommer’s new net energy-plus HQ building in Stuttgart and to learn about the latest trends in building technology and sustainable development.

Year-end volumes for 2022 in Central and Eastern Europe could reach in excess of €12 billion but uncertainty around the war in Ukraine and economic headwinds, could impact this prediction, reveals a report by Colliers: CEE Investment Scene  Q1 2022.