A record-breaking volume of investments in commercial real estate in Slovakia was realized in the first half of the year 2022. Total investments exceeded €600 million. The record volume is largely due to the transfer of part of Penta´s original portfolio to the new developer Alto Real Estate. It influences the statistics so the office buildings gained a position of the dominant segment with around 70% share of all investments. The share of domestic capital is representing almost 70% of the total volume of transactions. Within the context of rising inflation and increasing interest rates, analysts consider yields to be bottoming out without space for further compression. Slovakia continues to maintain its reputation as a safe investment location with competitive yields, according to Cushman & Wakefield's latest report.

Wood & Company has appointed Cushman & Wakefield as the property manager of its Astrum Business Park in Warsaw’s Włochy district.

The year 2021 has recorded over 65,000 sqm of the space in newly completed retail parks. This is the highest growth of the retail space in the Czech Republic in five years. Behind this success, there is mainly the stable interest among shoppers, long-term lease contracts and tenant expansion as also a surge of interest among investors. Nevertheless, the higher costs are now slowing the construction of the new retail parks. Therefore, a boost in the demand for space and likely push up rents as well are expected, states Cushman & Wakefield in their last report.

Equinox Nepremičnine d.d., the first public limited company on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange to engage in real estate leasing and development, has just negotiated a strategic 20-year lease on Grand Hotel Union, uHotel and Hotel Lev in Ljubljana. The deal was signed with world-renowned Hotusa Group, for a cumulative rent exceeding €110 million. The operator search was exclusively organised by Cushman & Wakefield.  

Cushman & Wakefield continues its partnership with GTC to provide community building services for the company’s office buildings. By coordinating its activities as part of its proprietary “WakeApp Your Office” scheme, Cushman & Wakefield is responding to the challenges experienced by office tenants and landlords in encouraging employees to return to the office post-pandemic.

In line with the growing popularity of flexible and hybrid work models, many companies are relocating, changing size and trying to re-fitting their offices. This could be one of the reasons why Prague placed second in the CEE region in terms of the price of fitting out an office. Nevertheless, the key reasons are the tightening supply chain and challenges around labour, which are set to continue well in 2022 and beyond. The average costs per sqm in Prague are currently €1,037, which is half of what it is in top German cities or in the UK where the median cost exceeded €2,000, Cushman & Wakefield presents in their report.

Cushman & Wakefield has released a report summarizing the first quarter of 2022 on the Polish industrial market. According to its data, total warehouse take-up in the first three months of this year reached 1.56 million sqm while the development pipeline hit a record 4.8 million sqm.

Cushman & Wakefield has published a summary of the first quarter of 2022 on the largest office markets in Poland. New supply rose by 60% year-on-year, while the overall vacancy rate edged up by 1.7 pp.

As Head of Workplace Strategy in Poland, Mariola will continue to develop her local team and implement new technologies in such areas as workplace strategy, change management, WELL certification and ESG in response to the growing expectations of clients and the changing business environment. Mariola is a member of Cushman & Wakefield’s sustainability team with key responsibility for WELL certification.

Cushman & Wakefield’s latest DNA of Real Estate research, covering trends in prime rents and yields across Europe, highlights further strengthening in leasing and investment markets in the first quarter of 2022 as economies fully reopen from the pandemic.