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. 

With a 4.8%-GDP growth in 2016 and the highest estimated growth rate in 2017 among EU member states, Romania has become an increasingly attractive destination for regional operations centres. The tax and legal regimes along with the geographic location, as well as the highly yet not so costly labour force are some of the key ingredients contributing to the country’s attractiveness, according to the Recipe for successful tax, law & real estate of regional operations centres in Romania report prepared by Deloitte Romania, Reff & Associates- Deloitte Legal together with Knight Frank. 

Vastint Poland has appointed Hochtief Polska as the general contractor of the second phase of Business Garden Wroclaw. Under the contract, six office and service buildings with a total leasable area of approx. 79,000 sqm are to be built. Construction works will commence in July this year and will end in November 2019.

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed property manager of Krakow’s office complex Zabłocie Business Park. The scheme is owned by IMS Budownictwo, a local housing developer.

Colliers International Hungary announced that Michael Smithing has returned to the Office Agency Team as Director of Landlord Representation, effective immediately.