The boundary between online and offline shopping is becoming increasingly vague. There is an evident retail trade trend toward the omnichannel, i.e. combining various sales channels tailored to the consumer's individual needs. This requires the development of e-commerce which has significantly accelerated recently. In the last 5 years, the share of online sales in Central and Eastern Europe grew by 9 pps to 15%, and in 4 years' time is bound to amount to 20%, according to CBRE's forecasts. Poland and Czechia are leaders in terms of online shopping growth in the region. E-commerce's market share in these countries in 2026 may be as high as almost a quarter.

Since February this year, Natalia Wenzławska, who took the position of Head of Marketing, is responsible for marketing and communication at CBRE in Poland. She will lead a team of a dozen or so people, whose tasks will focus on the implementation of the company's overall communication strategy.

As of summer 2022, leasing activity in the Kyiv office market was near a standstill and primarily driven by office optimization, as well as lease renewals and renegotiations of existing leases, according to the latest research of CBRE Ukraine. Whereas, as of the beginning of June, we observed a slight recovery in the level of office occupancy by employees who continued to work or who returned to Kyiv. Thus, typical office attendance among corporate occupiers was ca. 10% with many tenants in IT, high tech & telecommunications, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, agriculture, FMCG and industrial sectors planning to increase occupancy to 15%.

Around 500,000 sqm of logistics spaces have been leased in Romania in the first semester of the year, up 38% compared to the same period of last year, with the largest pre-leased surface of almost 88,000 sqm secured in Prahova County, according to property consultancy CBRE Romania. 

The modern office stock in Romania has reached 4.3 million sqm at the end of the first semester of 2022, with another 335,300 sqm slated for delivery by the end of 2023, according to real estate consultancy CBRE. 

Bucharest recorded 10 of the 14 major property transactions closed in the first half of 2022, while the overall volume of investment rose by 6% to €323 million compared to the first half of 2021, according to real estate consultancy CBRE. 

Investment into European real estate reached €152 billion in the first half of 2022 - the strongest ever first half of a year, according to preliminary data from CBRE.

The amount of property investments in Romania totaled €336 million in the first half of 2022, up around 13% year-on-year, while solid pipeline of transactions is under negotiation and could be completed by the end of the year, according to a report of real estate consultancy CBRE. 

Hungarian investor Indotek Group has purchased the One Victoriei Center office building in central Bucharest as part of its expansion strategy for an undisclosed sum. 

The footfall in Czech regional shopping centres remained almost unchanged despite the previous years of the pandemic and all the lockdowns. The turnover and the average basket increased, and the vacancy is stable. However, due to the 18-week lockdown, the year 2021 fell behind 2019 by about 15%. The biggest concern now comes from the inflation and spending cuts reported by CBRE in its regular Shopping Centre Index analysis together with the results of two surveys on customer behaviour and expected plans of retailers.