The third quarter on the Warsaw office market saw record-breaking demand and closed with an impressive 284,000 sqm. This means that nearly 690,000 sqm has been leased since the beginning of the year. At the same time, the vacancy rate is gradually decreasing with companies increasingly choosing pre-let contracts.JLL summarised the Warsaw office market at the end of Q3 2019.

ExxonMobil’s Global Business Services Center has signed a lease, agreeing to occupy GTC’s entire Pillar office building, which is currently under construction and due for delivery early Q1 2022. This is the largest deal in an office building that is already under construction in the history of Hungarian office transactions. CBRE represented ExxonMobil in this record-breaking transaction.

In Q3 2019, 66,000 sqm of new modern office buildings were handed over in Bucharest and there are big chances to break the 300,000 sqm threshold by the end of the year, according to Colliers International. The higher vacancy and infrastructure discrepancies will likely support a more thorough segmentation of the market, with the gap between well-located buildings and those at the opposite spectrum likely to increase over the medium term.

ATAL SA – a Polish developer – selected Knight Frank as its exclusive agent to commercialize the Krakowska 35 office property in Wrocław. The consultancy will also manage the property. The edifice with a total area of ca. 14,000 sqm will be handed over for use in Q1 2021.

CBRE studied the status of the city lying on the shore of Someș from the Romanian office market point of view, concluding in reconfirming the leader position of Cluj-Napoca among the regional cities.

Total demand on the Budapest office market in Q3 2019 reached 191,235 sqm, representing a 41% growth compared to the same period of last year, according to BRF’s latest figures.

Work is well underway on site at Forte Partners’ U Centre, a new, eight-floor office development in the Bucharest. The investment is valued at €200 million.

Mint Investments acquired one of the most prominent buildings in Na Příkopě Street in Prague for its private investors. Mint Investments acted in the transaction as an investment advisor and asset manager supported by Sentient as a technical advisor. The acquisition was debt-financed by Česká spořitelna. The seller was represented in the transaction by CBRE. Mint Investments now plans a major investment in the building's technical equipment which will allow it to execute its value-add programme.

Hines European Value Fund, acting through its subsidiary Gisla, plans to acquire the Wola Center office building in Warsaw from Develia. The parties have signed a preliminary agreement with the deal value set at €101.9 million.

CPIPG expects to acquire more than €800 million of high-quality offices in Warsaw, Poland during Q4 2019 and early Q1 2020. The company’s team in Warsaw has identified eight properties totalling more than 235,000 sqm and has signed letters of intent (with exclusivity) on assets valued at more than €700 million.