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.

Office Warsaw faces major challenges: deteriorating macroeconomic indicators, rising construction and utility costs, and upward pressure on rents and service charges. In addition, there are delays resulting from broken supply chains, the spectre of a supply gap and a strong reshuffling in the demand structure. On the other hand, the capital city market reports a quarterly record in lease agreements signed and attracts an IT giant that buys one of the newest office-mixed use complexes; all this is according to the summary of the first quarter in the Warsaw office market prepared by BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts.

The latest report from research firm Spectis indicates that following a strong start to the year, the outlook for the construction sector over the coming months of 2022 is now less bright. The expected slowdown can be indirectly caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine, which only aggravates the problems the market has been facing previously, such as soaring prices of raw materials, building materials, and energy sources or the shortage of labour.

For Croatia, as for other EECFA countries, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been both a supply shock and a demand shock. And many of the elements of these shocks are the same for Croatia as for other EECFA countries. On the supply side, energy costs are rising as are the costs of construction materials and of construction finance. Supply chains and labour markets have also been disrupted. On the demand side, inflation has cut into consumers’ real disposable income, consumer confidence has been shaken as a result and finance for real estate purchases has become more expensive, says Michael Glazer, SEE Regional Advisor at EECFA Croatia.

One of the most important factors for decision making in any business these days is understanding and complying with ESG standards. If a company wants to grow and be successful, it should follow the needs of customers and investors much more than ever before, said the experts of the ESG panel at Bratislava Property Forum 2022.

The 2021 financial year brought a massive increase in Immofinanz’s earning power. The results of operations rose by roughly 46% to €210.1 million and clearly topped the previous year as well as the pre-crisis period in 2019. Net profit improved significantly to €345.8 million, compared with the crisis-related loss of €-165.9 million in the previous year.

S Immo has received a request from shareholder CPI Property Group to convene an extraordinary shareholders' meeting. The motion is to resolve the abolishment of the 15 % voting cap set in the Articles of Association of S Immo. In addition, CPI Property Group has announced its intention to make a mandatory offer for all shares in S Immo not held by CPI. At the moment, CPIPG, directly and indirectly, owns a total of 42.6% in S Immo.

As a result of the war in Ukraine, almost all companies are dealing with completely new situations and facing unexpected problems. The experts of the first panel of Bratislava Property Forum 2022 discussed how investment strategies have to adapt to the new situation.

The end of April marks one year since the announcement of the acquisition of the Aupark Bratislava shopping centre.  The actual change in the shareholder structure took place on 27 May 2021, after the financial and investment group Wood & Company bought a stake in Aupark from Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW). The acquisition, worth a total of €450 million, has been hailed as the largest real estate transaction in Slovakia's history up to this date. The real estate fund AUP Bratislava, which was established in connection with the transaction, announced the amount of revenues for the year 2021.

In Ljubljana, a huge mixed-use project will see the creation of a new railway station, a new bus station, a hotel, a shopping centre, offices and apartments as part of the Emonika project. The public infrastructure project will be complemented by a private development by Mendota Invest, owned by Hungary’s OTP Real Estate Investment Fund. The project, which is worth nearly €500 million, was presented in Ljubljana by Sándor Csányi, CEO of OTP, Jernej Vrtovec, Slovenia’s Minister of Infrastructure, Zorán Janković, Mayor of Ljubljana, Dusan Mes, CEO of the Slovenian Railways and Janez Kozelj, Deputy Mayor of Ljubljana, Hungarian business daily Portfolio reports.