The Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK) has published figures summarising office market in eight major regional markets in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) for Q2 2021. 

Utmost cautiousness, falling transaction volumes and waiting for the office sector to finally catch its breath and the large retail schemes to redefine their strategies contrast with considerable investor interest in specific retail formats, the dynamic growth of the logistics sector, and strong entry of European players onto the domestic residential rental market. This is what—according to the latest report by BNP Paribas Real Estate “At A Glance: Investment Market in Poland in Q2 2021”, Poland’s commercial property investment market looked like in the second quarter of the year.

According to “Office Occupier: Office Market in Warsaw”, a report published by real estate advisory firm Cresa Poland, total leasing volume reached close to 249,300 sqm in the first half of 2021, accounting for 32.1% of the annual average for 2015-2020.

The increasing number of vaccinations is allowing the retail sector to catch its breath, with customers returning to ‘brick-and-mortar’ stores. JLL forecasts that total new supply could hit 540,0000 sqm in 2021, marking a return to pre-pandemic performances.

According to the last few months’ most active investor on the Slovak market, investment activity is returning to normal. Martin Šmigura, investment manager of WOOD & Company’s real estate operations in Slovakia, talked to Property Forum about the company’s recent investment deals and shared his market expectations.

Affan Yildirim, General Manager and Board Member at Romania-based real estate developer Anchor Grup talked to Property Forum about business strategy and shared his expectations for the Romanian economy and the property investment market in 2021.

Companies from the BPO sector may be reducing their offices in North America or Western Europe, but they are taking up more space in CEE at the same time. Yovav Carmi, CEO of GTC talked to Property Forum about issuing green bonds, ESG strategies and the BPO industry.

For nearly 1.5 years, since the beginning of the pandemic, the hybrid work model has permanently established itself in the labour market. According to the report, "Back to the office - an opportunity and a challenge. The office market and coronavirus", prepared by Colliers, the vast majority of companies would like to stick to this model also in the post-pandemic reality. 

Savills has forecast the key ESG, investment and leasing trends for 2022 in 36 cities around the world as part of its 2021 global Impacts research programme. The international real estate advisor predicts that, globally, tech occupiers are set to dominate leasing activity, offices will be the most popular investment sector, prime real estate yields are set to remain largely static, and Asian cities are seemingly lagging behind others around the world when it comes to prioritising sustainable investment.

One year (and almost a half) since the pandemic outbreak, business leaders across the world are still struggling with a million-dollar question: how to safely bring their teams back together in the office and fully restart business? With the hybrid model taking shape and employees slowly returning to the workplace in different scenarios, companies are looking to deploy frameworks for the healthy way of working of the future and some are already considering health performance indicators to confirm they are on the right track, writes Darren Allen, Development Manager at Genesis Property and Director of the Healthy by Design Building Institute, in an opinion piece for Property Forum