FLE GmbH, a company of the LFPI group, has acquired its first property in CEE from an international institutional seller. The acquisition relates to the office building Office Garden I in the Southern Buda area of Budapest, that is 93 percent leased and offers 16,000 square meters of leasable space. The seller was represented by JLL.

Warsaw’s office stock topped 5 million sqm in 2016. High growth dynamics and changing market conditions have led to inter- and intrazone tenant migration in the past two years. Building age is still central to the choice of a suitable location. Cushman & Wakefield presented its findings in a report on the future of the Warsaw office market.

Skanska has attained an occupancy permit for the third building of Silesia Business Park in Katowice. The office complex is one of the biggest office parks in Katowice and already has lease agreements signed for over 23,000 sqm of space.

CPI Hungary has sold its V188 office building and an adjacent development land (V190), both located on Budapest’s Váci corridor, to a Hungarian investment group. CPI Hungary plans to use the funds for increasing the value of its current portfolio and to implement new green investments. 

Belgian real estate developer Atenor announced the sale of Váci Greens Building C to Czech investment fund ZFP realitní fond (managed by ZFP Investments). This building is one of the three buildings completed by Atenor within its Váci Greens development in Budapest. Building C, completed in June 2015, comprises 18,500 sqm of office space, fully let to General Electric. 

Knight Frank has been appointed leading agent by Skanska to commercialize the retail ground floors of all five buildings of the High5ive complex in Kraków. The project developed by Skanska Property Poland will be handed over for use in stages. The first stage, which will include two buildings right next to the Galeria Krakowska shopping centre, is scheduled for the end of 2017. 

On 1 December 2016, international real estate developer HB Reavis and Savills Investment Management on behalf of a Global Pension Fund client, concluded the sale agreement of two of buildings within Gdanski Business Centre in Warsaw. In one of the largest transactions of the year in Poland and also in the CEE region amounting to €186 million, Savills Investment Management has acquired buildings A and B of the Gdanski Business Center, totalling 48,000 sqm.

Skanska Property Poland has signed an agreement on the rights of perpetual usufruct, a right granting long-term use of real estate, on the land plot near Rondo ONZ in the business centre of Warsaw. Currently, the Ilmet office building is located on this plot. In addition, the company has bought the Warsaw One project, which was designed by the previous owner. In the transaction process the seller was advised by Knight Frank.

Mentor Graphics Corporation, a manufacturer of design software and electronic equipment, has signed a lease agreement on 4 417 sqm in building B of Silesia Star in Katowice. The client was represented by Cushman & Wakefield in lease negotiations and the coordination and supervision of fit-out works in the new office.

During the third quarter, three new office buildings were completed with a total area of 39,570 sqm – reports JLL in their latest Budapest Office Market Pulse. The increasing development activity has had an effect on the vacancy rate as well: the Budapest office market’s vacancy rate made a slight increase to 10.9% as a result of the vacant space in the newly completed buildings and in the buildings from where the tenants moved out.