Hong Kong will retain its title as the world’s most expensive office market despite rents being forecast to decrease in 2019, according to Knight Frank’s latest Global Outlook Report. Knight Frank's chief economist believes that there is a compelling global case for continued rental growth across the global cities.

The Heweliusza 18 office building has been given a valid occupancy permit. Tenants will start to move into the building from spring.

One and a half years after starting work on the site in the western part of Bucharest, Globalworth has finalised the construction of Renault Bucharest Connected (RBC). The project includes 40,000 sqm of Class A offices, served by an underground level with approximately 240 parking spaces, with a further 760 spaces outdoors. Renault Bucharest Connected includes an 8,000 sqm design centre, and the employees who work there will benefit not only from a 350 seat amphitheatre but also other facilities such as a restaurant, gym and a medical office.

The local real estate market has entered a new year of development on all its major segments, as developers plan to deliver industrial, retail and office spaces with a cumulated area of 1.2 million square meters, a new market record. In comparison, new spaces of around 850,000 square meters were delivered in 2018, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

AFI Tech Park, AFI Europe Romania’s latest business campus in Bucharest, announced two new tenants of AFI Tech Park 1, the first building of the office complex: New Work and Afcon Electra Romania. Following this transaction, AFI Tech Park 1 reaches an occupancy rate of 80%

The landlord representation team at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland, acting as an exclusive agent, will be responsible for leasing the vacant space in the Vipol Plaza office complex.

Atenor announced that its latest large-scale Budapest project, Aréna Business Campus has secured its first two signed lease contracts for the first building. More than 700 sqm ground floor area has been leased to Costa Coffee and a medical centre, one year prior to the building’s handover.

Cushman & Wakefield has become the new property manager for Myslbek, the iconic multi-purpose building owned by AEW. As part of Cushman & Wakefield’s international collaboration, its Polish office has become the manager of two major shopping and office centres in Poland, Klif in Gdynia, Klif House of Fashion and Klif Tower in Warsaw from the same owners. Both offices assume their property management duties in February 2019.

Microsoft and Skanska’s office unit in Poland have signed an agreement on strategic cooperation in the area of PropTech. It provides for expert knowledge exchange and the use of advanced data analytics solutions, AI mechanisms and cloud computing to create breakthrough innovations for the office real estate sector. The partners will also work together to develop presentations of Skanska's development projects using mixed reality and Microsoft HoloLens glasses and the analytical part of the Connected by Skanska system.

Hungarian developer Wing has announced the acquisition of several buildings in Budapest’s Infopark office complex. The seller was Lone Star Funds – Hudson Global Advisors.