The stock of industrial and logistics space on the Romanian market has exceeded the 4 million sqm threshold, 90% of the total stock being concentrated in eight large cities from the southern, central and western parts of Romania, according to a new report by the Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

In 2019, the valuation department of Cushman & Wakefield Echinox evaluated properties with a cumulative value of €4.2 billion, while estimating an increase of 15% of the valuation volume for the upcoming year.

Office take-up in Prague has been slowly decreasing since 2017, cooling down further last year. Companies relocate or expand less often and increasingly more of them prefer to stay in their current location. Compared with earlier years, the share of major transactions in excess of 3,000 sqm was lower last year. The situation is not dramatic, however, as area absorption remains relatively high. This development can affect rents, though – their current amount will become untenable. By contrast, Brno saw a record-breaking increase in take-up and a strong share of major transactions last year, with rent amounts increasing as well, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s report.

In the last five years, the Romanian real estate market has attracted over 20 new investors from all over the world, the most active of them making acquisitions with a total value of approximately €1.5 billion, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

The year 2019 was a record one for the Prague hospitality sector in terms of transactions: the amount of investments in hospitality properties exceeded €500 million. This is the highest figure in history and twice the average for the last five years. This is also the first time that the Czech Republic has made it to the Top 10 in the European hospitality investment chart – to number nine. In 2020, the volume of hospitality transactions could become twice as high – €1 billion, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Occupier demand for office space in Warsaw remained robust, with 878,000 sqm transacted in 2019, up by 2% on the peak year 2018. Cushman & Wakefield presented a summary of 2019 on the Warsaw office market.

At the end of 2019, Poland’s total industrial stock topped 18.6 million sqm, with warehouse supply hitting a record high of 2.72 million sqm in the past 12 months. Compared to the previous year, warehouse space availability improved significantly on most of the nation’s regional markets. Cushman & Wakefield presents a summary of the Polish industrial market.

Cushman & Wakefield consolidate its Warsaw headquarters at The Warsaw HUB in the city’s new business centre. The global commercial real estate services company will occupy nearly 2,500 sqm of office space in the skyscraper.

EPAM Systems, a global product development, digital platform engineering, and digital and product design agency signed a 2,100 sqm new office lease contract in Debrecen’s newly developed Forest Offices in December 2019. EPAM Systems will be moving to the first floor of the five-storey office building in February 2020. Cushman & Wakefield advised Capstone Befektetési Alapkezelő Zrt representing, Garda Ingatlan Fejlesztő Befeketetési Alap the owner of Forest Offices, in the lease negotiations.

Cushman & Wakefield contributed to the leasing of over 6,600 sqm prime retail warehouse area, and to the sales of 7,000 sqm countryside retail area in Q4 2019.