Budapest’s office vacancy rate has increased to 8.1% in Q3 2020, representing an increase of 2.2 pps year-on-year. 106 lease agreements were concluded during the quarter and the number of signed transactions dropped by 25% compared to the same quarter of 2019, according to BRF’s latest figures.

Infogroup has commenced construction of a new logistics building in Polgár Industrial Park. The 4000 sqm speculative building is being developed in the company’s own industrial park. The customizable building will offer a solution to growing logistics and industrial needs, is expected to be ready in Q2 2021.

Etele Plaza, developed by Futureal in Budapest’s Kelenföld area, has reportedly reached an occupancy rate over 75%. The shopping centre, planned to be completed by Q3 2021, will feature every Inditex brand available in Hungary, including a Zara fashion store featuring a brand new design concept.

Hungary’s first-ever ’greenfield REIT’ marked a major milestone for the country’s property market as SunDell Estate Nyrt. has been registered as a regulated property investment company (known as SZIT in Hungary) by the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV). This makes SunDell the first company in Hungary that gained SZIT status nearly upon completion of all the steps of an initial float rather than choosing this form of operations after a substantial stock exchange presence.

Manufacturing PMIs in CEE showed that the recovery slowed at the end of Q3 2020 and the carryover to Q4 2020 was small (and even negative in some cases). This assessment pertains also to the outlook, with new orders and output expectations either rising less or showing a slower recovery in September than in the previous months, according to Dan Bucsa, Chief CEE Economist at UniCredit Bank in London.

CTP is building Lenovo's first European plant in Üllő, Pest County, in ctPark Budapest East industrial park. As part of the investment worth more than €18 million, CTP is building Lenovo's first high-tech European plant on nearly 35,000 sqm, the delivery of which is scheduled for spring 2021.

Gábor Futó, the founder of Futureal and Cordia has funded a new industrial and logistics property development and investment company, HelloParks. The firm will operate as a member of Futureal Group and is headed by Rudolf Nemes. HelloParks aims to obtain a leading position of this dynamically growing segment, as a first step in Hungary, later on in the whole CEE market. Expanding the group’s portfolio will also contribute to Hungary becoming a true regional logistics center.  

Most hotels in Budapest will see their revenues decrease by more than 70% compared to 2019 this year, while hotels outside the capital expect 20% to 40% lower revenues, according to a representative survey commissioned by the Hungarian Hotel and Restaurant Association.

Unusually, due to the current situation, Euroconstruct has issued an interim forecast which is a revision of the June construction market forecast. The results have been summarised by János Gáspár, head of Euroconstruct's Hungarian research institute, Buildecon.

Central Business Center, an office building located in Inner Buda is undergoing a major renovation by ConvergenCE. Recognised as the highest quality office building in Budapest at the time of its construction in 1994, an upgrade for the 9,540 sqm property was long overdue.