IBM Hungary is relocating its headquarters to Corvin Quarter in Budapest. The tech company will be moving into Futureal’s Corvin Innovation Campus in a phased co-location starting in 2023.

Experts participating at Portfolio's recent FM & Hybrid Office conference in Budapest discussed the present and future of the office market. The past 18 months have started a multitude of changes as WFH, the sub-leasing of office space, the change in internal configurations, the return to offices, sustainable management and changing tenant requirements have led to a substantial transformation in the lives of office market players. Experts agree that hybrid office use is currently the most likely outcome, as only a few businesses have adopted WFH full-time.

Companies from the BPO sector may be reducing their offices in North America or Western Europe, but they are taking up more space in CEE at the same time. Yovav Carmi, CEO of GTC talked to Property Forum about issuing green bonds, ESG strategies and the BPO industry.

CTP has increased its rental portfolio to some 664,000 sqm gross with the completion of its latest project in Biatorbágy. The company has been developing its industrial parks, with 235,000 sqm of new space in advanced stages of construction and a further 322,000 sqm to start construction in the near future with an added emphasis on sustainability.

Living, Wing’s residential property development umbrella brand, has completed its new residential park, Metropolitan Garden, in District 13, near Béke tér. Metropolitan Garden offers homes of various sizes between 30 sqm and 110 sqm in area. Each apartment has a balcony and is equipped with smart solutions.

According to a report by McKinsey & Company, the digitalisation of products and processes is one of the new standards in the global construction sector. All indications are that the construction industry is also following in its footsteps. After the leaders from the office real estate sector, other leading companies on the Polish market, this time from the residential and logistics sector, are deciding on comprehensive digitisation of administrative processes at construction sites of their investments. Cordia Polska and 7R have signed long-term cooperation agreements with BauApp, a provider of a mobile application, tailored to the specific needs of companies operating in the CEE market.

GLP has leased a 43,000 sqm unit at Sziget Logistics Centre to Fiege Group, a leading European logistics company that specialises in efficient supply chain solutions.

Retail chain Spar built new supermarkets in a Budapest residential park and in a frequented district of Sopron, and modernised its stores in Mosonmagyaróvár and Szentlőrinc.

According to the new forecast presented by WIFO, the Austrian partner of the Euroconstruct network, construction in the Euroconstruct area is set to register a 3.8% growth this year. Yet, Hungary still awaits negative growth rates this year, although the drop in 2021 is foreseen to be lower than last year.

Property Forum reported less than a month ago that the BC 140 office building in Budapest's Váci út was being sold. At that time, the new owner apparently would have been Chinese-owned Resolution Property but the latest developments indicate that the company that actually acquired the building in Portugal's Fidelidade. Although the two companies are rather far from each other at first glance, they are actually part of the same Chinese holding.