2017 was a record breaking year for the Bulgarian office market with almost 200,000 sqm take-up in Sofia. The investment volume has also been the strongest ever with €1 billion invested in commercial property (land acquisitions included) from which income generating assets hold €870 million. Cushman & Wakefield Forton summarised 2017 on the Bulgarian office, retail and industrial markets.

Prologis announced a successful pilot with Platio, a Hungarian start-up that provides aesthetic and space-saving renewable energy systems by integrating high-performance solar cells into sidewalk paving elements made of recycled plastic. Prologis Park Budapest-Harbor has become the first logistics park in the world to integrate this green technology into its daily operations.

Romanian industrial and logistics gross take-up increased in 2017 by almost 15% to over 525,000 square meters, registering a new record level, JLL reports.

Panattoni Europe has started the construction of the first logistics centre in Białystok. The developer’s new project – Panattoni Park Białystok – featuring roughly 40,600 sqm, is being executed in full. 50% of the space has already been commercialised. Completion of construction works on the entire investment is planned for the end of Q3 2018.

CTP will complete the construction of several warehouses and start new developments in its three logistics parks situated in the vicinity of the Romanian capital: CTPark Bucharest West, CTPark Bucharest and CTPark Bucharest North (former Chitila Logistic Park). It is estimated that by the end of 2018 their cumulated surface will reach approximately 680,000 sqm. CTP plans a total expansion of at least 300,000 sqm at national level.

Total demand on the Budapest industrial market amounted to 211,250 sqm in Q4 2017, marking a 58% year-on-year increase. The vacancy rate dropped to a new record low of 4%. The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial market analysis.

PRO-LOG has decided to extend the lease of 15,000 square meters of warehouse space in the MLP Pruszków I park. At the same time PRO-LOG decided to increase its warehouse space by additional 5,000 square meters to 20,000 square meters in total. All the facilities will be equipped with state-of-the-art LED lighting.

P3 has acquired a second logistics park near Lovosice, in the Ústí region of the Czech Republic, from HB Reavis. The new park, to be known as P3 Lovosice Cargo, comprises a single 43,500 sqm warehouse which is fully let to a long-term occupier and houses all of its business operations, including offices. P3 Lovosice Cargo has a direct rail link to the nearby international rail freight container terminal. Its accessibility is further enhanced by connections to Exits 45 and 48 on the recently opened D8 motorway.

CTP has acquired more than 20 ha of land for a new park in Iłowa, South West Poland. The new park sits strategically in the city’s dedicated Economic Activity Zone on the A18 highway connecting Krakow, Wroclaw and Germany.

WDP is reinforcing its capital in the Romanian entity, being a 51/49 joint venture partnership with Jeroen Biermans up until now. After the capital increase the ownership ratio of the shareholders will evolve towards an 80/20 ratio. This should facilitate the further portfolio growth towards €500 million.