In Q1 2017, industrial space totalling 162,400 sqm was completed within 10 industrial parks across the Czech Republic, bringing the total stock of modern industrial and logistics space to 6.47 million sqm. The Industrial Research Forum announced its preliminary industrial market figures for Q1 2017.

In 2017, following its international assessment, CBRE has created a survey among real estate investors in Hungary asking them about their market expectations. At the CBRE Investment Breakfast investors turned out to be optimistic about the future. 43% of the respondents stated that the investment market might grow even by one-fifth from last year’s €1.5 billion and 23% stated that this year they might reach their highest turnover ever.

The current forecast for total construction volumes in Hungary shows increases of 8% and 12% for 2017 and 2018, respectively. The barriers for the realization of the developments are the rise of construction costs and the lack of skilled labour force. CBRE expects that these issues raise risks of delivery delays and decrease of developers’ profit margins.

London has been ranked as the most attractive European city for real estate investment for the sixth consecutive year, according to CBRE’s annual Investor Intentions Survey being launched at MIPIM 2017. At 6th place Warsaw is the most attractive CEE city among investors. Prague placed 8th, with Budapest (10th) and Bucharest (14th) also making in the top 15. 

Vienna-based investment manager GalCap Europe has acquired Merkúr Palota (the Mercure Palace), a fully renovated office building in Budapest. The seller is a private investor; both parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Peakside Capital has completed the acquisition of Argo Alpha, a Prague office building comprising 12,600 sqm of GLA. The transaction price has not been disclosed. 

2016 was a record-breaking year for the Polish investment market and had the best investment performance since the financial crisis in 2009. With over €4.5 billion transacted in 2016, Poland remains the stand out performer across the CEE region, CBRE reports in its latest in research. 

Investors spent €1.54 billion in 2016 in the Hungarian commercial real estate market surpassing the 2015 level by 107%. Last year both office properties and retail properties were in request, thus CBRE is expecting a similar or even higher turnover for 2017.

Total real estate investment volume in the Czech Republic exceeded €3.7 billion in 2016, CBRE revealed. The most notable transactions in 2016 were the sale of P3 Logistics Parks, the Park and Florentinum, with 67 transactions being mediated on the Czech market in total. 

The property management and (property and SPV) accounting of Váci Greens’ Building C, acquired by ZFP Investments, acting on behalf of the ZFP realitní fond, a Czech real estate fund entering the Hungarian commercial real estate market, is now performed by CBRE.