Major real estate developers continued to be active in Bucharest throughout 2019, providing the land needed for new projects consisting of over 6,000 apartments and 130,000 square meters of offices. Overall, in 2019, 24 major transactions were made in Bucharest with land intended for the development of residential, office or mixed projects, some of them having the potential to include a hotel component, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

The stock of modern offices in the major regional centres of Romania - Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași and Brașov - will reach the threshold of 1 million square meters in 2020, with a delay of almost one year compared to the initial estimates. Despite the fact that 2019 was a record year in terms of deliveries, with a volume of nearly 130,000 square meters, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox's Office Market Regional Cities report.

In October 2021, global IT leader GlobalLogic will occupy 10,000 sqm under a new lease agreement in Wrocław Business Park – Strzegomska Park. The landlord will pull down part of the existing office complex to make way for a new bespoke building to fulfil the tenant’s requirements - the first such transaction in the history of the Wrocław office market. With this deal, GlobalLogic, as a leader in the IT industry, is, therefore, setting new trends on the local office market. GlobalLogic was advised on the transaction by Cushman & Wakefield.

Irish clothing chain Primark‘s long-anticipated market entry into Slovakia has been confirmed as the company has signed a lease agreement with Eurovea. At the same time, the shopping centre has announced that it reached 70% occupancy in the forthcoming extension. Cushman & Wakefield facilitated the transaction.

From retail survival and sustainability investment through to the impact of automation and major political and economic change, Cushman & Wakefield’s new EMEA insight report explores the major themes the commercial real estate industry needs to keep in mind next year.

The development of e-commerce has a growing impact on the development of the industrial real estate sector. The origins can be found in the change of our shopping habits – the popularization of e-commerce has revolutionized logistics operations in warehouses, according to Adrian Semaan, Consultant at the Industrial and Logistics Agency at Cushman & Wakefield Poland.

The market value of office buildings in the Czech Republic and in Prague, in particular, has continued growing as a result of steady demand and insufficient supply. Yields from premium office schemes in Prague currently range around 4.3 percent. Aggregate investments in commercial properties in the Czech Republic for the first three quarters of 2019 amounted to €2.5 billion (almost CZK 64 billion), according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed by Logicor to manage a portfolio totalling more than 1.7 million square metres of logistics real estate across dozens of sites in Central & Eastern Europe (CEE).

In the first three quarters of 2019, the regional city investment volume reached €1.06 billion, matching the level recorded in the whole of last year. Cushman & Wakefield forecast this year’s total volume to hit €1.3–1.5bn, 25-40% above the equivalent level in 2018. Prime office yields stand at 5.50%–6.00% in Krakow and Wrocław, and at 6.75–7.25% in Gdansk, Poznań, Katowice and Łódź.

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed as sole letting agent for Riverside Park and Grójecka 5 in Warsaw, and Arkońska Business Park in Gdansk. Cromwell Property Group acts as the property manager for the buildings.