Cushman & Wakefield has renewed and rebranded its exclusive arrangement with Forton as its affiliate in Bulgaria and Macedonia. The formal affiliate appointment follows the 2015 global merger of Cushman & Wakefield and DTZ. Forton has been Cushman & Wakefield’s partner since 2006. From today, Forton will rebrand as Cushman & Wakefield Forton.   

With an impressive 66% growth of retail sales per capita since 2004, Poland stands second to none in Europe. Over the past five years both the retail stock and the retail sales have been growing steadily at the level of 20% cumulatively, according to an analysis released by Cushman & Wakefield. Forecasts for the next decade show a further 40% growth of retail spending per capita, which demonstrates growing affluence of the Polish society.

In Q1 2017, industrial space totalling 162,400 sqm was completed within 10 industrial parks across the Czech Republic, bringing the total stock of modern industrial and logistics space to 6.47 million sqm. The Industrial Research Forum announced its preliminary industrial market figures for Q1 2017.

€1280 million was invested in commercial real estate in the Czech Republic in the first quarter of 2017. This is the largest ever amount of investment registered for a first quarter. The result is mainly attributed to three major transactions: the sale of the Letňany Shopping Centre the CBRE GI portfolio and the change of the Olympia Brno owner. The Czech National Bank’s exit from currency interventions should not slow the strong demand for commercial real estate down.  

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed property manager of the Prosta Tower office building in Warsaw. A special open-ended real estate fund managed by Credit Suisse Real Estate Investment Management Germany is the owner of the scheme. The property management agreement was signed in December 2016.

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed as sole letting agent for Astrum Business Park, a Warsaw office complex comprising 30,000 sqm of leasable space, by owner IRYDION Sp. z o.o.

Buildings account for over 40% of energy consumption in Europe, of which   around 75% are not energy efficient. This illustrates the importance of obtaining sustainable development certificates for both newly-developed and existing buildings. Their energy efficiency is assessed based on modeling and energy simulations. However, so far, there has not been any analysis regarding the actual energy consumption of a building: what is the impact of the implementation of innovative systems, appropriate management, specifications and the expected level of the users’ comfort on the building energy performance? These issues have been thoroughly addressed in the first study in Europe, conducted by Skanska, Go4Energy and Cushman & Wakefield, which analyses office buildings in Poland.

The investment volume achieved in 2016 totalled almost €1.2 billion with 46 transactions recorded in core CEE hotel investment markets. In comparison, 2015 reached just over €700 million with 45 transactions. Austria was the star performer with almost €800 million transacted, which made up 67% of the total investment volume. In other CEE markets volume was lower than in 2015 with a particular decline in Poland which more than halved in volume. The Czech Republic accounted for 18% of total CEE investment share; most of the investment took place in Prague which saw 7 transactions including the Hilton Old Town, Park Hotel and Chopin Hotel.

2017 will deliver only 17,000 sqm of new space to the Brno office market. When considering the size of the market, together with Budapest, this is the lowest increment of new offices in Central and Eastern Europe – 3.3%. A lack of new office space may cause rental prices to increase. These figures are based on an analysis made by Cushman & Wakefield, which compares the office markets across 12 cities in Central Europe.

Warsaw office building Wspólna 47/49 has been awarded a BREEAM IN-USE International certificate. It received an “Excellent” rating in Asset Performance and a “Very Good” rating in Building Management. The scheme is owned by CA Immo and Cushman & Wakefield is the property manager.