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.

Avison Young is strengthening its team to provide its clients with first-class office leasing services in the Czech Republic. For the post of Associate Director, the company has appointed Petr Florian to develop its Office Leasing service line.

Poland’s convenience retail market has seen dynamic growth during 2020 and 2021 with several significant investment transactions closed and many new developments launched. Michał Ćwikliński MRICS, Principal, Managing Director and Paulina Brzeszkiewicz-Kuczyńska, Research and Data Manager at Avison Young in Poland talked to Property Forum about the trends driving this market segment.

There is a belief that ESG costs money but in fact, the opposite can be true, says Stefan de Goeij, Head of Property Management at Avison Young in the Czech Republic. He talked to Property Forum about compliance, commitment and tackling all the components of ESG in the real estate industry.

Poland’s investment market continued to attract significant investment activity in 2021 with an annual transaction volume of €5.9 billion. A record number (166) of transactions were closed by 80 active investors, according to Avison Young’s annual investment market summary. The company expects that 2022 will see the great comeback of the office sector through increased interest in core and core+ assets in both Warsaw and regional cities.

Avison Young has advised M7 Real Estate in the disposal of the Mokotow Plaza office building in Warsaw. The buyer is Vienna-based investor FLE GmbH, entering Warsaw office market with this purchase.

Real estate consultancy Avison Young has launched the X Factor, a guide for companies looking at the best way to attract and retain top talent for today’s evolving expectations of the workplace. 

According to Avison Young, investment activity in the Polish market speeded up in the third quarter of the year in comparison to the first half of 2021 in terms both of the investment volume and number of transactions.

CTP says it has taken over around 112,000 sqm of industrial space from Zacaria Industrial, representing parks in four cities, for an undisclosed sum. Following the acquisition, CTP has started operations in Craiova and expanded its presence in Sibiu, Arad and Oradea and its local portfolio has edged close to 2 million sqm.