Days of strong development activity on the Budapest office market are once again ahead of us. The market has been growing steadily and cautiously for years now and we have reached a point where tenants looking to immediately rent several thousands of square metres have no options left. BTS developments and large pre-lease deals have dominated property news cycles for over a year now and the time has finally come for developers with speculative projects to make their move. We take a closer look at Budapest office developments.

Appeninn has purchased a property in the Rózsadomb area of the 2nd district of Budapest. The company has signed a lease agreement for 6 years with Pénzügykutató Alapítvány (Financial Research Foundation) regarding the over 800 square meters large office.

Robust commercial real estate investment activity continued in Q2 2016 across the core Central European markets and reached EUR 2.6 billion, a 56% increase on Q1, according to Cushman & Wakefield. This has pushed volumes over the last twelve months to EUR 9.3 billion, close to 2007 record levels. 

There has been a significant increase in demand for income-producing industrial properties bought for investment purposes in Hungary in the past two years. China's Shanghai Feilo Acoustics owned Inesa Europe purchased more than 16,000 square meters of industrial property under such a deal. The distribution center located at Dunakeszi serves the European customers of one of the largest LED manufacturers in China.

The supply of new apartments in Budapest has increased significantly, 2.5 times, between February and March of 2016, but only a few can move in as the number of apartments with an occupancy permit is limited. The first wave of increase will hit the market in the second half of 2017. The still tight supply and large demand has pushed prices upward; the increase in price per square meter has exceeded 5%, as shown by the analysis of the Budapest Housing Market Report.

Vacancy rates reached a record low level on the Budapest office market as a result of modest development activity and strong demand from tenants. The Budapest Research Forum has published its quarterly office market analysis.

Renewals dominated the Budapest industrial property market in the second three months of the year where the vacancy rate has increased for the first time in nearly three years. The Budapest Research Forum has published its Q2 2016 industrial market snapshot.  

Immofinanz has signed several lease agreements since the beginning of the calendar year 2016 accounting for approximately 40,000 sqm of its Hungarian portfolio. Of this figure, prolongation of leases accounts for more than 25,500 sqm, and new and expanded contracts sum up at 14,500 sqm.

The sharp rebound of the Hungarian real estate investment market witnessed in H2 2015 has gained further momentum during the first half of this year. According to JLL the transaction volume of the first semester reached more than EUR 910 million, already more than during the full 2015 year, highlighting the increasing weight of capital targeting Hungarian assets.

Prologis has signed a new lease agreement for 4,800 square metres with Inter Cars Hungária, the largest passenger and truck parts dealer in Central and Eastern Europe, at its DC7 building now under construction at Prologis Park Budapest-Sziget. CBRE facilitated the transaction.