The beginning of the year was marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine which caused various obstacles to the Slovak economy. It pushes inflation up to the highest in 17 years as also the prices of food, housing and energy. Nevertheless, the lifted lockdown measures helped boost retail sales and new office leases surpassed renegotiations for the sixth quarter in a row. Experts also saw a record quarter with substantial take-up and plunging vacancy rates, Cushman & Wakefield Slovakia presents in their new report on the Slovak economy.

The Central & Eastern European real estate market has registered an investment volume of €2.8 billion in Q1 2022, up 44% year-on-year. By volume, the lion’s share of the deals was realised in Poland (59%) and the Czech Republic (32%). Cushman & Wakefield has summed up the investment market in the CEE region.

There is currently over 46 million sqm of industrial space in the CEE region, of which one-fifth is in the Czech Republic and the largest part – more than a half – in Poland. There is more than 900 sqm of industrial space per thousand inhabitants in the country. Just 1.6% of the space in Czechia is currently vacant. A record-breaking 1,112,000 sqm is currently under development in the Czech Republic – the highest figure in history. Demand on the part of logistics, distribution and e-commerce companies is growing. Cushman & Wakefield has analysed the trends in the industrial property sector in five Central European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) in 2021.

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed as the property manager of two Warsaw buildings in HIH Invest Real Estate’s portfolio: Feniks Office Building and Prime Corporate Center.

​Given that the global tech giants are primarily headquartered outside Europe, analysing the recent trends in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can help to identify which locations are proving attractive for data centre operations. Cushman & Wakefield’s latest findings confirm that the largest investment activity continues in mature tech and financial hubs in Western Europe. A key driver for activity in this group of locations is the proximity to the high economic activity of these increasingly digitised markets, writes Dimitris Vlachopoulos, Partner, Head of Portfolio & Location Strategy, EMEA for Cushman & Wakefield.

Cushman & Wakefield expands its sustainability and ESG services. In the Central and Eastern European region, Tereza Jelínková will lead the coordination of Cushman & Wakefield’s sustainability teams.

The main themes on Slovakia´s office, retail and industrial markets in the fourth quarter of 2021 were supply-side shortfalls and rising prices. However, the office market saw one of its strongest quarters yet as take-up soared. Cushman & Wakefield published its Q4 2021 snapshots for Slovakia’s office, retail and industrial sectors.

In 2021, commercial property investment volumes in CEE continued to trend upwards, increasing 6.9% on 2020. However, they still remained 15% below the five-year rolling average. Industrial and office investment activity predominated, and we saw notable evidence of price improvements with yield compression in all segments, but especially in the industrial sector, where the price growth was almost 20%. Cushman & Wakefield has summarized the 2021 investment activity in the CEE commercial real estate market.

Cushman & Wakefield presented the findings of its survey conducted among executives representing over 30 leading international hotel operators in its latest report. The survey was completed in December 2021 by hotel operators with a presence or interest in entering the CEE region.

The Resideo warehouse in Nagykanizsa, Western Hungary has recently changed hands, Cushman & Wakefield announced on LinkedIn.