Soaring rents have seen London’s New Bond Street rise to become the world’s third most expensive retail street, while New York’s Upper 5th Avenue and Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay retain their first and second place rankings, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Prague’s Na Příkopě Street has improved its position from last year’s 23rd to the current 22nd in a chart of the 68 most expensive high streets.

The total floorspace in shopping centres across Europe increased by 1.17 million sqm to 160.8 million sqm at the midpoint of 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Since the beginning of 2017, a total of 57,850 sqm of new shopping centre space has been completed in the Czech Republic. The figure includes the extension of IGY České Budějovice by 9,250 sqm, an extension of the Chodov Centre by 35,000 sqm and the newly built Central Jablonec with a floor space of 13,600 sqm. This represents a 67% growth over the previous year. However, the market will deliver markedly less shopping centre space next year. According to current information, just one shopping centre will be completed – the Géčko in Ostrava. By contrast, several major projects will open after 2019.

Poland’s warehouse supply hit a record high at the end of Q3 2017. The industrial stock totalled 12.86 million sqm, which represented an 18% rise year-on-year. Tenant demand remained robust on the country’s core warehouse markets, driven largely by logistics operators whose share in total take-up amounted to 45%. The vacancy rate slipped down by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year while headline and effective rents remained largely unchanged, reveals Cushman & Wakefield.

Cushman & Wakefield selected Budapest as the location of their Portfolio Services Centre (PSC) solution. The new 1,300 sqm PSC is located in the Studium Office Building, close to Corvinus University and many cultural venues and sights. The team is being led by Byron Tudor who has joined from Goldman Sachs International.

The Bulgarian property market is booming with the total transaction volume expected to exceed €1 billion in 2017. The outlook for the future is highly positive: strong demand, underpinned by solid economic growth, encourages developers to start new projects in all segments of the market.

Focus Estate Fund investment fund acquired Most Retail Park located in Most, Czech Republic, comprising 6,471 sqm of retail space. This is Focus Estate's third investment in European commercial real estate. The investment fund previously bought Ostrava Retail Park (Ostrava, Czech Republic) and Galeria Sandomierz (Sandomierz, Poland).

Cushman & Wakefield has been responsible for the audit of the Focus office building and obtaining a BREEAM IN-USE International certificate for the scheme. The office complex, located at 26 Ludowej Avenue in Warsaw, received an “Excellent” rating in Building Management and a “Very Good” rating in Asset Performance.

Despite record low vacancy levels in Budapest and an increasingly landlord-friendly leasing environment, industry commentators have warned of an imminent oversupply around the corner. But there is no need to panic just yet, suggests Orsolya Hegedűs and Mike Edwards at Cushman & Wakefield, Hungary.

The growth of e-commerce is transforming the retail market all over the world. Experts don’t believe that physical stores will completely disappear but owners of developers of retail assets will need to come up with new ideas in order to attract customers. Jan Kotrbáček, Head of Retail Agency CEE at Cushman & Wakefield analysed the CEE retail market for Property Forum.

Cushman & Wakefield is responsible for the commercialisation of Pradera’s four retail parks in Poland: Homepark Targówek and Homepark Janki in Warsaw, Homepark Rawa in Katowice and Homepark Franowo in Poznań. The four retail schemes provide more than 100,000 sqm of GLA.