A strong increase in new supply is expected in the upcoming two years, however, most submarkets of the Budapest office market will still face rental growth in 2018. Sustained rental growth for Class A properties across all submarkets - except the Periphery - is forecasted. Rental growth on the Class B market is expected to be more moderate, driven both by Hungarian firms entering the institutional market and multinational firms seeking lower cost office options, according to Colliers International's latest, mid-year office market report.

MOM Park, a 50,000 sqm prime shopping mall and office property in Budapest was sold by a consortium of a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, Hungarian developer and investor Wing and Austrian shopping centre specialist CC Real to OTP Real Estate Investment Fund. The mall had been acquired in 2015 by the consortium, and since then significant investments have been made in the building enhancing its value as a property and a business.

Skanska has sold Mill Park, a two-building office project in Budapest, to the real estate fund of Erste Alapkezelő Zrt., one of the subsidiaries of Erste Asset Management GmbH, for €100 million. This is the second acquisition from Skanska in Budapest that the purchaser has made following the Nordic Light transaction in 2016.

Skanska has acquired the 61-meter Waterworks office building in Budapest. The developer is demolishing the 26,000 sqm office building which dates from 1981. Later on, Skanska plans to develop a modern, visionary office complex in the same location.

Promenade Gardens, a recently completed office building on Budapest’s Váci corridor, changed owners on 1 August 2018, when Erste Real Estate Fund purchased the 97% leased property from the developer, Budapest-based Horizon Development. The new, dual certified (LEED Gold and BREEAM Very Good) asset of 25,000 sqm has already been chosen by a number of international tenants such as Celanese and Citibank, with more signed deals to be revealed soon.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced today that a Hyatt affiliate has entered into a management agreement with Városház Utca Projekt Ingatlanforgalmazó Kft. for the first Hyatt Regency hotel in Budapest, Hungary. The 231-room property is expected to open in early 2020.

Leasing activity in the Budapest office market remained strong with more than 253,000 sqm of office space leased in the first half of 2018. In total, commercial real estate agencies were involved in 173,000 sqm of office leasing transactions, from which CBRE completed the largest amount of transactions, 42,245 sqm equating to 24.4% market share in the agents market.

Total demand on the Budapest industrial market amounted to 59,740 sqm in Q2 2018, marking a 72% decrease over the figure noted in the same period last year. The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial market analysis.

Net absorption on the Budapest office market in Q2 2018 amounted to 40,140 sqm, which marks more than a doubling year-on-year. The Budapest Research Forum published its latest figures.

Hong Kong Central remained the most expensive office market in the world, according to CBRE’s annual Global Prime Office Occupancy Costs report.