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Over the year, since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Poland, the Warsaw office market has seen a marked decrease in occupier demand and office stock under construction amid rising vacancy rates. Although the past 12 months have been challenging for the office sector, companies are no less keen to have an office of their own, says real estate advisory firm Savills.

The volume of new real estate investments in Romania amounted to €98 million in the first quarter of 2021, driven by the office and industrial segments. The investments were down 19% compared to the same period of 2020, according to a report by CBRE. 

GTC has decided to boost its Hungarian portfolio again by investing €160 million in the acquisition of two office properties in Budapest, the Ericsson HQ and the Siemens Evosoft HQ, both developed by local company Wing.

At the end of Q1 2021, the total modern office stock in Poland's eight major regional markets amounted to 5,826,400 sqm. The largest office markets in Poland (following Warsaw) were Kraków (1,574,000 sqm), Wrocław (1,226,300 sqm) and the Tri-City (913,600 sqm). The Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK) has published figures on the office market in eight major regional markets (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) for Q1 2021.

In 2020, applications for building permits in Warsaw were pouring in, says Walter Herz. According to the Permits for the Construction of Office Buildings Warsaw 2016-2020 report, last year brought over a 40% increase in the number of filed applications for building permits for facilities offering office space in Warsaw, compared to the previous year.

Real estate developer AFI Europe Romania is investing around €1.6 million in the refurbishment of common spaces in the AFI Lakeview office project, in northern Bucharest. 

Warsaw's office sector saw the lowest volume of space under construction in 11 years along with relatively low tenant activity. However, the business services sector provides hope for the future. JLL has summarised the situation in the Warsaw office market at the end of the first quarter of 2021.

Indoor air and water quality is not something many people give too much attention to when it comes to the office buildings where they work and spend most of their time during the day. At home, they invest in products like air purifiers and water filtration systems; at work, they rely on their employer or building owner and, most of the time, they take what they get without sometimes even considering if it may or may not affect their health, writes Dr. Darren Allen, Director of the Healthy by Design Building Institute, in an opinion piece for Property Forum

Wołoska 24, an office building developed by Ghelamco has a new owner. It is a Czech investment fund, ZFP realitní Fond, managed by ZFP Investments which is a subsidiary of Slovakia's IAD Investments. The value of the transaction amounted to over €60 million.

Uniqa Real Estate, part of the insurance group, has completed the acquisition of The Light One office building in Bucharest from River Development for an undisclosed sum.