On May 29th, 2018, Budapest’s Ericsson House was officially handed over. This new building, developed by Wing, features not only offices but also one of the Swedish company’s largest European Research & Development centres. The 24,000 sqm property, built in the first phase of the development project of the Hungarian Nobel-Prize Winners’ R&D Park, satisfies both the needs of today and tomorrow due to its cutting-edge technology and execution. As shown by its LEED Gold certification it upholds the highest standards of environmental consciousness. The new HQ will house 1800 workers. Now, with the handover of the Ericsson House, the development of the adjacent site may commence as the second phase of the project.

Nordea, Infosys, Fujitsu and Harman opened offices in Łódź a long time ago. Other firms are now following in their footsteps. Commerz Systems recently announced its entry into the Łódź market, says Marta Pyziak, Head of the Łódź Office of Cresa Poland.

Globalworth announced the acquisition of West Link, a recently completed office property in Wroclaw, by Globalworth Poland. West Link is located to the west of the city centre and is well situated on Wroclaw's key communication arteries. It offers 14,400 sqm gross leasable area and occupancy of 100%, with an annual contracted rental income of €2.5 million and a weighted average lease length in excess of 6 years. The main tenant is Nokia Solutions & Network, which is also the main tenant at GPRE's West Gate, an adjacent high-quality office property which comprises a further 16,600 sqm.

Piraeus Bank is about the sell the Landmark office buildings in Central Bucharest to Revetas Capital, ZF has learnt.

Whilst Prague 4 is the largest market, over the next two years, most of the new supply will be delivered to Prague 8. In perspective, it could overtake Prague 1 by market share and become the third largest office submarket in the capital. In 2018 and 2019, almost 27% of new offices that are currently under construction will be completed in Prague 8. The largest of the planned projects is Palmovka Open Park, thanks to which office space in Prague 8 will expand by almost 25,000 sqm at the end of Q2 2018. Regarding the intensity of construction, Prague 4 is in second place with 22% of the offices under construction. The third place belongs to Prague 5, where 19% of new construction will be completed.

In terms of size, Łódź is currently the sixth largest regional office market in Poland. Investors are attracted by the city's extensive pool of specialists and an increasingly strong business brand. Experts from JLL indicate that the increasing maturity of the Łódź office market is contributing to the development of state-of-the-art office clusters in the city.

Real estate developer Portland Trust and investment fund Ares Management have sold the Oregon Park office complex in Bucharest to Lion’s Head Investments, a joint-venture between South African investment fund Old Mutual Property and AG Capital, for an undisclosed sum.

Nearly 55% of last year’s supply of new offices in Budapest came in the form of two schemes: Timpuri Noi Square I & II (33 000 sqm) and The Bridge (36 000 sqm). It is thanks to these developments that the total office stock in Romania’s capital reached the threshold of approx. 3.2 million sqm. BNP Paribas Real estate’s analysis highlights that tenant expectations in respect of high-quality space made developers focus mainly on supplying Class A office buildings to the market.

JLL has secured €11 million to refinance the Lascar 31 Business Center Bucharest on behalf of the manager of the project, ForeVest Capital Partners. Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Romania provided the loan for the property, which comprises 9,250 square meters rentable area.

Colliers International has carried out research into retail units in the Warsaw’s office buildings. The study covered approximately 300 buildings and a survey was carried out on a sample of 200 employees. Colliers experts asked respondents about their expectations about the quality of the retail and service units in their workplace and what they have available at present.