Cushman & Wakefield Echinox assisted property transactions in Romania totalling over €300 million in 2017, accounting for 30% of the total local property investment volume of nearly €1 billion. The deals included projects such as Chitila Logistic Park, the Radisson Blu complex in Bucharest and two properties sold by REWE.

Cushman & Wakefield is further expanding its presence in the Czech Republic. It will open a new regional office in the Trinity Office Center in the centre of Brno. Its focus will be on regional office market, but will offer to its clients consulting services from other real estate sectors as well. Lukáš Netolický will be leading the office and at the same time becomes the Head of Regional Cities CZ. The new office will open in March 2018. Cushman & Wakefield is therefore responding to the steadily growing trend of regional market development fuelled by the economic growth. Brno is the most active city in terms of demand, followed by Ostrava.

In 2017, real estate transactions hit a record-breaking volume of € 5 billion, up by nearly 10% on the previous year. Bank financing for properties remained unchanged, averaging approximately 60% of each property’s value. Cushman & Wakefield has published its opinion on the commercial property lending market in Poland, written by Mira Kantor-Pikus, Partner, Equity, Debt & Structured Finance, Capital Markets at Cushman & Wakefield Poland.

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed exclusive sales agent for a tenement building at 68 Piękna Street in Warsaw.

European office rental growth slowed to 0.4% over the quarter, though still posted a respectable 2.4% annualised growth. Budapest led the way with growth of 9.1% across the quarter, supported by strong demand, historically-low vacancy rates and a lack of Class A space. Demand for logistics space is supporting rental growth and driving yields lower across Europe, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest DNA of Real Estate report.

2017 witnessed robust leasing activity that was driven largely by the financial services sector, which amid moderate supply pushed Warsaw’s office vacancy rate down to 11.7%, the lowest since Q3 2013. Cushman & Wakefield presented an overview of the Warsaw office market for 2017.

The Polish Office Research Forum has published its figures for 2017 for the office market in eight major regional cities in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Szczecin, Lublin). The market data prepared by a team of analysts includes modern office stock, new completions, take-up volumes and vacancy rates.

Power Systems giant Rolls-Royce has appointed Cushman & Wakefield to an expanded role supporting its global property requirements following a competitive tender process.

2017 was a record breaking year for the Bulgarian office market with almost 200,000 sqm take-up in Sofia. The investment volume has also been the strongest ever with €1 billion invested in commercial property (land acquisitions included) from which income generating assets hold €870 million. Cushman & Wakefield Forton summarised 2017 on the Bulgarian office, retail and industrial markets.

Demand for flexible workspace across the world saw record growth in 2017, according to the latest research from Cushman & Wakefield. The firm’s Co-working 2018 report reveals the extent to which the sector has evolved and matured with the UK leading the way globally.