​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.

The Czech retail market and physical retail segment remain attractive for retail brands, as the arrival of 38 new international brands last year confirms: this is the highest number in the last three years. This means a 52% year-on-year increase over the 25 new brands arriving in 2020, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Total investments in commercial real estate in Slovakia in 2021 exceeded €750 million which exceeded the volume of investments in the pre-crisis year 2019. Prime yields decreased over the past year, confirming the attractiveness of investing in the commercial real estate market in Slovakia, says Cushman & Wakefield.

Czech shopping centre revenues for the first ten months of this year reached a similar level as they did in the same period of 2020. Since April, footfall has been consistently higher than last year. The number of new brands coming to the market has been the highest in the last three years, mostly in the fashion segment, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The office market is changing due to the coronavirus pandemic, albeit not as dramatically as initially expected. Offices as a concept are definitely not over and working from home is not becoming a lasting standard – it has been confirmed that it has its limitations and that personal contact is irreplaceable. A hybrid model, combining working in the office and at home, will likely be more common. Office space take-up is still below the pre-crisis figures, but the activity on the market has been growing recently. For the time being, the growth has not been enough to justify the growth in rental prices that would be necessary due to an increase in construction material prices, but both can be expected to grow in the future. The crisis has halted the progress of some schemes, so we will not see a major increase in new office stock before 2023. This could result in demand overhang, and thus in increased rents in the years to come, according to Cushman & Wakefield.