The pandemic has caused a lot of change on the market but these changes can easily be viewed as an opportunity for further growth as Jonathan Hallett, Head of Central & Eastern Europe at Cushman & Wakefield demonstrates. He talked to Property Forum about the results of the last year and shared his expectations for the future of work and the CEE advisory market.

The first quarter of 2021 saw record low vacancies in the greater Prague region, affirming consistent high interest in industrial premises in premium locations. High demand is pushing lease prices upwards, with lease prices having grown by 25 % per sqm year-on-year within the Prague cadastral district, for example. The Czech industrial real estate market is being impeded by drawn-out approval processes and a lack of new options in areas with the greatest demand.

Hungarian state-owned NIPÜF Group has completed another sales transaction with the sale of a nearly 3 ha plot in the Inpark Martonvásár industrial park, located southwest of Budapest. A Hungarian chemical company will build a 4,000 sqm production hall on the property by 2022.

According to “Occupier Insight – Industrial and Warehouse Market Q1 2021”, a report prepared by Cresa, gross industrial and warehouse take-up climbed to 1.6 million sqm in the first quarter of this year, representing an increase of 51% compared to the first three months of last year. This result accounts for 46% of the annual average for the last five years and marks a record quarter in terms of leasing activity.

VGP has launched construction of the fifth hall in its logistic park VGP Park Pilsen, located in an industrial part of the city’s Bručná quarter. The park is adjacent to the E49 and has access to the D5 motorway. On a land of about 10 hectares, VGP offers nearly 50,000 sqm of lettable area suitable for light manufacturing, logistics and accompanying commercial activities. Tenants of the new warehouse will be DHL Express, leasing 1,113 sqm, as well as Verhoek Europe with 2,170 sqm of logistics space.

In its first financial results announcement since the IPO in March 2021, CTP recorded a 16.9% growth of net rental income in Q1 2021 vs Q1 2020, increasing its market share in its core CEE markets to 24% by the end of Q1 2021 and more than doubling leasing activity to 397,000 sqm GLA (compared to 184,000 sqm in Q1 2020).

The volume of investments in Romania’s property sector exceeded €140 million in the first four months of 2021 due to a positive market sentiment, according to a report by real estate consultancy Crosspoint Real Estate. 

Globalworth has announced the acquisition of two industrial projects in western Romania for almost €18 million. The company took over Industrial Park West Arad and Industrial Park West Oradea, with a total area of 27,000 sqm that is fully leased. 

The 7R City Park Poznań complex will house the first European plant of the Ningbo Tuopu Group, a Chinese automotive company. Tuopu cooperates with global brands from the automotive sector, such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen, Chrysler, Ford, Geely and General Motors. The Poznań factory, with an area of over 30 000 sqm, will produce components for electric cars. It will employ 450 people.

Panattoni is entering a new market. The company has announced the opening of an office in Hungary, headed by László Kemenes. He will be responsible for the development of speculative and big-box projects in Hungary, from the site acquisition and investment preparation, through to the commercialisation of the projects and their transfer to their eventual tenants. The developer already has two projects secured in the Budapest market.