One of the most active developers of Prague’s office market is ready to embrace the digital transformation and is actively looking at new projects and new locations. Alexandra Tomášková, Managing Director of Skanska Property Czech Republic talked to Property Forum about changing tenant needs, digitisation and market expectations.

Amundi Czech Republic has completed the acquisition of the company holding the property Polygon office building at Pankrác in Prague for its KB realitní fond 2. The property was sold by Mint Investments. Cushman & Wakefield facilitated the transaction.

Bucharest’s Floreasca/Barbu Vacarescu area is the most valuable fusion between retail and office spaces. According to Colliers International Romania, for every 1,000 sqm of offices, there is 35-40 sqm of retail space. In total, in the Floreasca/Barbu Vacarescu area, there is about 10,000 sqm of such spaces at the ground floor of the office buildings, with the rents generated by these holding a share of 4-5% of the total cashed in by landlords.

MOM Park, a 50,000 sqm prime shopping mall and office property in Budapest was sold by a consortium of a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, Hungarian developer and investor Wing and Austrian shopping centre specialist CC Real to OTP Real Estate Investment Fund. The mall had been acquired in 2015 by the consortium, and since then significant investments have been made in the building enhancing its value as a property and a business.

HB Reavis has successfully sold two Warsaw office buildings to Savills Investment Management (Savills IM) who acted on behalf of a global pension fund client. Offering ca. 53,000 sqm, Buildings C and D of Gdanski Business Center are now entirely owned by the global pension fund.

In H1 2018, gross take-up on the office markets of Brno and Ostrava reached 45,600 sqm and 18,900 sqm, respectively, representing a significant yearly increase in both cities.The Regional Research Forum announced the Brno and Ostrava office market figures for H1 2018.

Skanska has sold Mill Park, a two-building office project in Budapest, to the real estate fund of Erste Alapkezelő Zrt., one of the subsidiaries of Erste Asset Management GmbH, for €100 million. This is the second acquisition from Skanska in Budapest that the purchaser has made following the Nordic Light transaction in 2016.

S + B Gruppe AG has acquired the Jabłonowski Palace historic office complex in Central Warsaw from Commerz Real. The property offers 17,000 sqm of leasable space and 170 parking spaces.

Colliers International Romania advised East Balkan Properties plc in the selling of its office portfolio consisting of four buildings with a total area of 9,047 sqm, situated in strategic locations in the capital. The acquisition was made by Adam Europe, the group that purchased a while ago the Phoenix Tower and Construdava Business Center office buildings, following two transactions that were also advised by Colliers.

Cushman & Wakefield has published a summary of the first half of 2018 on the Warsaw office market in its latest MarketBeat report. Effects of the existing supply gap are likely to carry into 2020 when large-scale office projects providing a cumulative annual supply of 430,000 sqm will be delivered. As a result, tenants are increasingly opting for pre-lets to secure prime office locations.