New research from Cushman & Wakefield has revealed European retail park floorspace increased by 2.2% in 2018, reaching a total of 50.1 million sqm, with France and Spain leading the way in terms of new schemes. The report states that 995,000 sqm of new retail park space was completed in Europe last year, down 15% on 2017. A stable development trend is expected going forward, with 1.4 million sqm of new retail park space scheduled for opening in 2019/2020. Nevertheless, quick and easy construction and a growing number of schemes below 5,000 sqm are expected to boost the number of openings.

Although the results of this year’s first quarter have been weaker than expected on the CEE investment market, this does not automatically mean than a slowdown has started. Andy Thompson MRICS, Head of Investment Czech Republic & Slovakia at Colliers International shared his market expectations with Property Forum.

The EBRD is supporting capital market development in Romania with a €50 million investment in the second benchmark-sized €500 million corporate bond issued by NE Property B.V.

Orbis decided on the potential disposal of its service activity (asset light entity) and entered into exclusive negotiations with Accor - proceeding with the Company business model transformation.

Panellists of the CEE investment roundtable of Prague Property Forum 2019, led by Mike Atwell, Head of Capital Markets Czech Republic and Lead Director CEE at JLL discussed the key trends shaping the regional investment market. They agreed that the low interest rate environment is probably here to say but it's very difficult to say for how long.

One of the leading investment advisors of the region is seeing increased activity in Slovakia and Romania and expects further yield compression on these markets. Mike Atwell, Head of Capital Markets CEE and Czech Republic at JLL shared his thoughts on new investments, changing market trends and technology.

Investment fund Focus Estate Fund has set the goal to expand the geography of its presence in Central and Eastern Europe. In the next two years, the Fund plans to more than double its portfolio by strengthening its position in the niche of medium-sized commercial real estate in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as by entering the Slovak market.

According to the RICS Commercial Property Monitor, Hungary has the strongest occupier sentiment and the Czech Republic has the strongest investment sentiment among the 40 countries surveyed in Q1 2019. Market expectations remained fairly positive across Central and Eastern Europe in the first quarter of the year, with the share of those stating that we have reached the peak of current property cycle decreasing compared to previous quarters.

Allianz Real Estate intends to invest as much €500 million in CEE property over the next two years, according to a Bloomberg article.

The phenomenal growth of the ‘flex’ sector is set to continue apace in years to come, with flexible workspace in EMEA grow by over 50% by 2022 and the number of office workers occupying this space growing to 750,000 across the region. That’s according to global real estate advisor, Colliers International, which recently released its Flexible Workspace Outlook Report 2019.