Emma Toma, Head of the Office Leasing Division at AFI Europe Romania, spoke to Property Forum about the developer’s expansion plans in the residential segment and the trend of rising rents in Class A office buildings.

The first six months of 2022 saw record results for the office market in Warsaw. During H1 2022, as much as 479,400 sqm was leased, making it the best ever H1 performance for the capital city’s market. According to JLL experts, this is evidence that the capital's market is undergoing a thaw after two years of continuous uncertainty.

The amount of property investments in Romania totaled €336 million in the first half of 2022, up around 13% year-on-year, while solid pipeline of transactions is under negotiation and could be completed by the end of the year, according to a report of real estate consultancy CBRE. 

The gross take-up in the Prague office market has increased by 41% in Q2 2022 compared to Q2 2021. The volume of office construction also increased y-o-y by 47%. Leasing activity was driven by IT companies and the rent gap between newly completed and existing buildings continues to widen, says the office market report for Q2 2022 published by The Prague Research Forum.

The Green Point office building in Prague's Smíchov district will expand the assets of WOOD & Company's Office subfund. The eight-storey building has 7.5 thousand sqm of lettable office space available and at the moment half of it is already occupied. The amount of the acquisition from Ronaldsay B.V. was not published by WOOD & Company.

The lowest vacancy was registered in North Buda with a 4.4% rate, whereas the highest rate remained in the Periphery submarket (31.4%). Net absorption has remained positive by the end of the second quarter, amounting to 33,720 sqm, Budapest Research Forum (BRF) reports.

In the first half of 2022, office take-up in Warsaw hit a record high of 479,400 sqm, representing a year-on-year increase of 94%. Savills forecasts that the growing undersupply of office space will drive rental growth going forward, further accelerated by shrinking availability and significant increases in construction costs and office property management fees.

One of the main advantages of working in an office is the opportunity to be around colleagues. Social interaction in the workplace is known to boost creativity and productivity which is why companies are focusing on providing employees with more space for socialisation and teamwork. As post-Covid working habits are still rapidly changing and the reorganisation of corporate headquarters takes time and money, many employers are providing their employees with the opportunity to work from flex offices, according to market feedback gathered by CEE-based operator New Work.

Colliers has taken over the management of two office buildings owned by Stena Fastigheter – phase I of Centrum Południe in Wrocław and phase III of High5ive in Kraków. Following Spark B in Warsaw, these are further investments belonging to one of Sweden's largest private real estate companies to be managed by Colliers.

Challenging times are still going on, thus investment market participants are closely following the impact of the turmoil in Europe on the economy and its long‑lasting consequences. In spite of the record-high inflation as well as continuously raised interest rates, the Polish investment market keeps track with 32 investment deals closed in Q2 2022, exceeding €1.2 billion, Avison Young reports.