Ryan Wray, Managing Director and Principal at Avison Young, Czech Republic, talked to Property Forum about the perils of today’s macroeconomic conditions investors may reckon with in their decision-making and looked at possible scenarios and working strategies for office occupiers in the Czech office market.

In the first half of 2022, demand for offices in the Polish largest regional cities was higher than in the entire 2021. Also office assets in such locations are now one of the main targets for investors, says Avison Young Poland.

Challenging times are still going on, thus investment market participants are closely following the impact of the turmoil in Europe on the economy and its long‑lasting consequences. In spite of the record-high inflation as well as continuously raised interest rates, the Polish investment market keeps track with 32 investment deals closed in Q2 2022, exceeding €1.2 billion, Avison Young reports.

Avison Young successfully mediated the disposal of two architecturally significant assets in Budapest's CBD on behalf of a US family office to local development company WING. Both are fully leased on a long-term basis.

Bank Pekao S.A. completed the €10 million refinancing project of a retail park portfolio owned by Newbridge Poland. The investor was advised in this process by the Avison Young investment team.

Monika Bronicka, Director and Head of Valuation and Advisory at Avison Young talked to Property Forum about the current challenges to the valuation of properties under rapidly-changing market conditions in Poland.

Increasing costs of energy and construction materials have visibly reinforced the need to think about the carbon footprint of the real estate industry through construction and building efficiencies. Benjamin Perez-Ellischewitz, Principal at Avison Young in Hungary talked to Property Forum about the impacts of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine on the real estate market and shared his thoughts about companies’ evolving approach toward ESG.

Barely has the pandemic subsided, the investment market is already facing new challenges due to the war in Ukraine. The end of the first quarter of the year was partly influenced by the new geopolitical situation when the whole real estate market held a breath. Despite new circumstances, ongoing transactions are closing, which is reflected in Q1 2022 investment market results. Furthermore, regional investors from Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are keeping their interest in real assets located in Poland.

Real estate advisor Avison Young has announced Wesley Thomson has joined the firm as Director of ESG, UK & Europe, to lead ESG strategy in the region.

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.