JLL is responding to the strengthening trend of flexible offices along with the entry of new centres on the Czech market and introduces a unique consulting service in this sector in the Czech Republic. Tereza Bílá joined the JLL Landlord & Brokerage team as a Flexspace Consultant on June 1st.

GTC is gearing up in Budapest by commencing construction of Pillar office project located in the Budapest’s 13th district,. Recently, GTC celebrated the completion of their LEED Platinum certified GTC White House office building located also in Váci Road corridor, fully leased to BlackRock, Range Rover Jaguar, and Spaces. To further expand its position on the Budapest office market, GTC acquired one more land plot adjacent to GTC’s Center Point to increase the development pipeline to over 100,000 sqm of office space.

Krakow’s office stock has increased by more than 15% over the year to more than 1.3 million sqm at the end of Q1 2019. According to “Occupier Economics: Office Market in Krakow Q1 2019”, a report published by m Cresa, the capital city of Lesser Poland continues to attract tenants and this trend is likely to carry on into the near future given the economic and cultural potential.

Modesta Real Estate continues to be the exclusive broker for lettings in Westend Tower, Bratislava. The company successfully arranged office space for a large number of companies over the past few months. In addition to many new contracts, the leases of some major companies have recently been extended. These include international companies such as Kovintrade and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Adamed.

Construction has begun on the Office Garden IV complex, which is being developed in Budapest by GRT Group, with the work to be completed in Q2 2021.

Futureal Group has sold its Advance Tower located on the Váci road office corridor to Erste Real Estate Fund. This is the first transaction in the Hungarian market, which includes a WELL pre-qualified office building having a beneficial impact on employees’ health and comfort. The real estate fund has acquired the first phase of the complex developed by the group, while the second phase could join its portfolio under a forward deal.

SGI SA has sold the Lastadia Office in Szczecin to a company managed by Greenstone Sp. z o.o. Lastadia was delivered to the market in 2013 and offers ca. 12,500 sqm of GLA. It is located at the banks of Oder River along Wały Chrobrego and is fully let to international and Polish tenants.

The phenomenal growth of the ‘flex’ sector is set to continue apace in years to come, with flexible workspace in EMEA grow by over 50% by 2022 and the number of office workers occupying this space growing to 750,000 across the region. That’s according to global real estate advisor, Colliers International, which recently released its Flexible Workspace Outlook Report 2019.

In the first quarter of 2019, leasing activity hit 140,100 sqm on the Warsaw office market, of which more than 101,000 was transacted under new deals and expansions. Cushman & Wakefield summarised the Warsaw office market in Q1 2019.

Poland's office market in Q1 2019 saw office supply growing, vacancy rates dropping comparing to the last year, and demand predominantly being driven by IT, services and manufacturing. Advisory firm JLL summarised the situation on the Polish office market at the end of Q1 2019.