The Polish industrial market set three records in H1 2018, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The leasing volume hit 2,100,000 sqm – the highest in the first six months of a year, the vacancy rate fell to an all-time low of 4% (573,000 sqm) and the volume of warehouse space under construction set a new high of 2,250,000 sqm across 66 projects.

The Property Management Department of Cushman & Wakefield Echinox has expanded its service line by creating the first Training Academy in Romania, called Drawing Business Value Academy, dedicated to tenants in commercial buildings and office buildings occupiers, in partnership with DBV Management & Training, a training and consulting company. The aim of the Academy is to increase the tenants' performance in shopping centres by improving the quality of service and customer relationship and the experience of office buildings occupiers through the development of a community

The number of employees in Class A and B office buildings in Bucharest has reached about 253,000 at the end of the first semester of 2018, a slight increase compared to the end of 2017. In H1 2018, the number of employees working in companies with headquarters in modern office buildings in the capital increased by 3,000, according to estimates of Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. Considering the office projects whose delivery is announced for the second half of the year, the number of employees in modern office buildings in Bucharest could rise to 270,000 by the end of 2018.

Alternative investment products have been slowly growing in popularity for some time now in CEE. As clients look for new types of services from advisory firms, this trend is here to stay. Jonathan Hallett MRICS, Executive Partner | Head of Central & Eastern Europe at Cushman & Wakefield talked to Property Forum about business lines, technology and competition.

The rate of shopping centre development in Europe is slowing, with completions down 23% year-on-year at 3.8 million sqm 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest European Shopping Centres report.

More than 180,000 sqm of retail space was added to the Polish retail market in H1 2018 and another 330,000 sqm is expected to be completed by year-end 2018. This will represent an increase of over 25% year-on-year, bringing Poland’s total retail stock to more than 14,800,000 sqm. The new supply will be concentrated in cities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, accounting for 40% of this year’s openings. Cushman & Wakefield has published another edition of its MarketBeat report.

The overall European logistics yield dropped 14bps to 5.95% in Q2 2018, the first time it has fallen below 6% since Cushman & Wakefield began consistently tracking the three main property sectors in 1992, according to the firm’s DNA of Real Estate report.

Poland’s first office leasing transaction based on blockchain technology has taken place on the ShareSpace platform in August 2018. The tenant was Ricoh Poland, a company providing office solutions.

Amundi Czech Republic has completed the acquisition of the company holding the property Polygon office building at Pankrác in Prague for its KB realitní fond 2. The property was sold by Mint Investments. Cushman & Wakefield facilitated the transaction.

The local industrial and logistics stock exceeded the 3 million sqm threshold, reaching 3.12 million sqm at the end of H1 2018, according to Romania's Industrial & Logistics Market H1 2018 report by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. Almost 90% of the current stock is concentrated in Bucharest and in five other cities - Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Ploiesti, Brasov and Pitesti.