Globalworth announced the conditional agreement for the acquisition of two investments in Poland, which were identified as part of its acquisition pipeline announced on 11 March 2019, for a combined transaction value of €113.2 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of July 2019, subject to the fulfilment of customary conditions.

Total demand for offices in Warsaw during Q1 2019 was more than 140,000 sqm. Approx. 750,000 sqm of space is under construction. Tenant activity is expected to grow, and the market is waiting for spectacular projects to be finalized. JLL summarised the Warsaw office market in Q1 2019.

The Bucharest office closed Q1 2019 with decent numbers: a gross take-up of 105,000 sqm, out of which the net take-up was 29,000 sqm, and 93,000 sqm of deliveries. Data from Colliers International Romania show that the demand came mostly from IT&C companies, despite the tight labour market.

Following the recent takeover of the Sugarmaker Palace, UBM Development is preparing another large project, namely the Astrid Garden multifunctional complex, consisting of two parts – Astrid Offices and Astrid Residences. In the first stage, a five-storey office building will be constructed, followed by a residential complex of about 110 units the sale of which will be launched in the third quarter of 2020. The architectural form was designed by Bogle Architects, emphasising not only the modern look, lightness and airiness, but also the sensitive setting in the typical character of Holešovice.

A fund managed by GLL Real Estate Partners has acquired Gatehouse Offices – an office building constructed by Echo Investment at Warsaw Brewery complex, with the space leased by such companies as L’Oréal Polska, WeWork, Epam Systems Poland and Sony Interactive Entertainment Polska. The parties signed a preliminary agreement in November last year.

Total demand in the first quarter of 2019 reached 79,980 sqm on Budapest’s office market, representing a 12.2% decrease year-on-year. New leases accounted for 45% of the total leasing activity, according to BRF’s latest figures.

CBRE has taken over the management of the NEPI Rockcastle office portfolio in Bucharest, totalling 70,580 square meters. This is the first time when NEPI Rockcastle outsources the management of the properties. CBRE Romania now manages 770,000 sqm of offices and retail assets.

The increased interest of global corporations in coworking spaces was a notable trend that impacted on the office markets of the four largest capital cities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in 2018. The total flexible office stock of Budapest, Moscow, Prague and Warsaw stands at 286,000 sqm, accounting for approximately 1% of the combined office market of these cities (29.9 million sqm). Demand generated by coworking operators in 2018 made up 5% of the overall office take-up in the CEE capital cities.

Spaces has leased 2,700 sqm in the mixed-use Wroclavia centre. Experts from JLL advised Spaces on the negotiation of lease terms. The developer - Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield - was represented by Knight Frank.

M7 Real Estate announced that, on behalf of M7 Polish Active Fund (M7 POLAF), it has acquired three multi-let office assets in Poland in separate transactions for a total of €45 million which will form the first tranche of capital deployed for the Fund.