Nearly 100,000 sqm of new office space was delivered to the Budapest market in 2016, the highest figure since 2010. Meanwhile, demand picked up in the last quarter of the year with a large share of the total leasing volume made up of pre-leases and new transactions. At the same time, the office vacancy rate has returned to its downward trajectory, reaching 9.5%, the lowest rate on record.

In Q4 2016 total leasing activity amounted to 133,460 sqm on the Budapest industrial market which marks a 64% rise on a yearly basis. Meanwhile, the vacancy rate reached a new post-crisis low at 8.1% and there is currently no scheme offering more than 10,000 sqm available adjacent space. The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial market analysis.

CA Immo has completed negotiations with Union Investment Real Estate GmbH on acquiring 49% of shares each in the office buildings Danube House in Prague and Building A of Infopark in Budapest, both so far part of the open-ended property fund UniImmo: Europe. The deal, which has already been closed, will make an immediate positive contribution to long-term profitability by around €3 million.

W Hotels Worldwide, part of Marriott International, announced an agreement with QPR Properties Kft, part of Constellation Hotels Holding Ltd., to debut the W Hotels brand in Hungary with the opening of W Budapest. Located on Andrássy Road, the hotel will be situated directly across from the State Opera House, businesswire.com reports.

TriGranit appointed the Hungarian office of CBRE with the exclusive leasing of its latest development in Budapest. The Millennium Gardens office building is being constructed alongside the Palace of Arts and the National Theatre, on the Danube side of Soroksári Road. It will offer 37,000 sqm of leasable space and it is expected to be completed by 2019. 

Prologis has announced that Prologis European Properties Fund II (PEPFII) has acquired M0 Central Business Park in Hungary from IDI Gazeley. Two newly acquired, 100 percent let, facilities totalling 31,443 square metres will become part of the adjoining 98-percent let Prologis Park Budapest-Sziget, which currently comprises seven buildings totalling 150,000 square metres.

Hotel capacities in Hungary will grow by approximately 2,000 rooms over the next two years, which corresponds to 4,000 new hotel beds, so Hungary and in particular Budapest will be prepared to meet the tourism challenges of coming years, according to KPMG's latest analysis. 

Last year few would have anticipated that commercial real estate investment volumes for Hungary would even reach €1 billion this year, yet now it seems sure that 2016 will be a record year on the investment market. Over €910 million have been transacted in the first half of the year and an astonishing amount of new deals were announced in the second part of 2016, especially in the last few weeks. Looking at the transactions that took place this year, two things seem certain: one is that several new entrants made purchases in 2016 and the other is that market transparency still has a long way to go. 

Cushman & Wakefield, representing CIB Bank, have facilitated the transfer of the former CIB Bank Headquarter offices on Szabadság square, Central Budapest to a German investor as of December 1, 2016. 

Skanska has sold the Nordic Light office building in Budapest, Hungary, to the real estate funds of Erste Alapkezelő Zrt. – one of the subsidiaries of Erste Asset Management GmbH. The value of the transaction is €67 million. The transaction has been recorded in December, with the transfer of the property scheduled for the first quarter of 2017. Skanska has also started its newest office development in the Hungarian capital.