In the current time of intense market changes, space in centrally located boutique office buildings might become a good option for companies migrating from large Warsaw facilities, according to consultancy firm Walter Herz.

Europi Property Group has acquired a 12.3% stake in Capital Park, an owner, operator and developer of office and mixed-use assets in Poland, predominantly Warsaw. While EPG had been tracking the company since late 2019, the opportunity to invest arose as a result of the market distress in March, enabling the acquisition at an attractive discount to the net asset value.

In Q1 2020, the total office stock of Poland’s nine largest markets (Warsaw, Krakow, Wrocław, Tricity, the Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, and Szczecin) reached close to 11.3 million sqm, up by 5% on the same period in 2019. Cushman & Wakefield summarised Q1 2020 on the Polish office market.

Czech real estate developer Kaprain Group, owned by businessman Karel Pražák, has launched the construction of the 30,000 sqm Kaprain Harfa Business Center office project next to Prague’s O2 Arena, local daily E15 reports.

Ghelamco Poland has introduced special solutions to its office buildings to prepare them for an epidemic which will become a standard in the company’s future projects. A new approach to HVAC systems will enable the buildings to operate in the so-called pandemic mode.

Savills has been appointed property manager of Posejdon, a €78 million (PLN 350 million) office, conference and hotel complex in Szczecin. The building is entering an operational phase, with more office tenants moving in and the first retail stores now open. The opening of two hotels (four- and three-star hotels) is scheduled for the second half of 2020.

Futureal Group has launched the construction of Corvin Innovation Campus. The office complex equipped with contactless technology will offer nearly 30,000 sqm of gross leasable area (GLA) in the immediate vicinity of Corvin Promenade in Budapest. The new-generation building is being developed under Futureal’s Stay Safe initiative designed to respond to the changing market demand due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The first phase of the building is expected to be handed over in the autumn of 2022.

According to Cresa Poland, the office market in Poznań is heading towards achieving supply-demand balance. Within one year, office stock in Poznań increased by almost 11% and amounted to over 580,100 sqm by the end of March 2020. The average annual growth rate for this market in the years 2012–2020 was at the level of 11%.

By purchasing the Mezi Vodami 31 office building in Modřany, Prague, the NEMO Real Estate Fund, established by Českomoravská Nemovitostní (ČMN), expanded the total area of its office portfolio to 17,500 sqm. The value of the Fund’s portfolio now reaches €47.7 million (CZK 1.3 billion).

The share of flexible office space take-up across Europe decreased in the first quarter of 2020 to reach 5% from 9.5% at the end of 2019. The sector has expanded exponentially from 2017-2019, and is reaching maturity, as large providers become less expansionary.