The office market in Warsaw broke another record – total demand for office space in H1 2017 was 391,400 sqm. Wola continues to grow in terms of both popularity and significance. JLL summarised H1 2017 on the office market in Warsaw. 

The EPISO 4 opportunistic fund, advised by Pan-European real estate manager Tristan Capital Partners, has acquired the Avenir Business Park office complex in Western Prague from debt restructuring firm Lone Star.

The vacancy rate on the Warsaw office market reached 13.9% at the end of June, with gross take up in H1 2017 nearly reaching 400,000 sqm. The Polish Office Research Forum has published its figures for Q2 2017 for the office market in Warsaw. 

Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate, a German based real estate investment manager, will acquire the Sagittarius Business House office scheme in Wrocław on behalf of an individual fund it manages for an institutional investor. The property is under construction and its completion is expected in Q1 2018.

Construction cranes are a common sight when walking around Budapest, marking the rapid property development taking place. Soon, scores of office buildings will appear out of nowhere. The changes are especially dramatic on Váci Road. Just a few minutes’ walk north of the metro station on Dózsa György Road there are three adjacent construction sites. But there are developments in progress all over the city, paving the way for new business centres.  

Mint Investments, a Central European real estate investment & asset manager acquired the International Business Center (IBC) in Prague on behalf of a syndicate of private investors. The buyer was AEW Europe, a multi-national real estate asset manager, with over €60 billion of assets under management. AEW was advised by CBRE, Havel, Holásek & Partners and Mazars. Mint Investments were advised by Mareš Partners and EY.

Net take-up of office spaces in Bucharest amounted to almost 80,000 sqm in the first half of the year, which means an additional 10,000 jobs, considering that companies usually allocate for each employee 8 square meters. In total, gross take-up reached 185,000 sqm in H1 2017, a small decrease when compared to first 6 month of last year (192,000 sqm), JLL reports.

Futureal Group has started the construction of the Corvin 5 office building in Budapest. The first phase of the building is expected to be handed over by the end of 2018. The complex valued at €90 million is also among the firsts to receive Well Building certification in Hungary since it has already been registered in the international process of the standard system.

The Budapest office market vacancy rate has decreased to 8.6% in Q2 2017, which is the lowest rate ever on record.  Renewals were the major driver of the leasing activity while no new buildings were completed in the quarter. The Budapest Research Forum published its newest figures.

According to Savills, the total volume of commercial property investment transactions concluded Q2 2017 in Poland exceeded €1 billion. Investor activity is high, driven mainly by portfolio transactions.