Office availability in the Warsaw office market is shrinking, with the vacancy rate for the whole city down to 10.6% and to just over 9% in the centre, says Savills. Tenants are, however, likely to enjoy a wider choice of options once more office projects are restarted. This process is already slowly getting underway, as is clear from the growing development pipeline.

New office lease and renegotiation agreements were signed for 158,923 sqm during Q3 2023, up 36% compared to the previous quarter on the Bucharest market, according to data from Fortim Trusted Advisors, a member of the BNP Paribas Real Estate Alliance.

Octava has sold the Obrzeżna Center office building in Warsaw to a Polish investor. The price has not been disclosed. Avison Young and Savills jointly represented the seller.

Swobodna SPOT is a new project by Echo Investment at 60 Swobodna Street in Wrocław. There will be a total of 41,600 sqm of leasable space in the project located in the city's business centre. Two office buildings and a green urban walkway connecting them were designed by architects from Kuryłowicz & Associates.

According to the latest report published by Newmark Polska, tenants in the Warsaw office market continue to carefully review their needs, including potential office locations, while landlords are actively adapting the standard of office space to occupier requirements. New leases, including pre-lets, accounted for more than half of all deals recorded in the third quarter, but renegotiations still represented a large proportion of total take-up. At the same time, there is still a strong interest in ESG solutions and their implementation.

Lux Med Group, a provider of private healthcare services market in Poland, has leased more than 13,000 sqm of office space in Atenor's Lakeside property. Occupying more than half of the building's space, Lux Med has therefore become Lakeside's biggest tenant, whereas the deal is the largest single office transaction of the Warsaw office market so far in 2023. The new Lux Med office will open in the second half of 2024.

The market is transforming fundamentally but offices are here to stay, while traditional occupiers appreciate the flexibility option for workspaces, concluded speakers of the office investments panel of CEE Property Forum 2023, held in Vienna.

The office vacancy rate in Budapest increased to 13.2%, representing a 0.6 pps growth quarter-on-quarter and a 2.2 pps increase year-on-year. Two smaller buildings have been handed over while the demand has increased by 14% compared to the previous quarter, the Budapest Research Forum (BRF) reports.

Czech developer Contera has opened Organica office building in Ostrava. The grand opening was attended by representatives of the main client, the Scandinavian company Tietoevry, as well as the Mayor of Ostrava and the Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region. 

In a strategic move to strengthen its presence in the Croatian real estate market, ALFI Real Estate Fund (ALFI RE) recently added another gem to its investment portfolio. The acquisition of the Matrix B office building in Zagreb's bustling business district marks a significant milestone for the Fund, propelling its real estate portfolio value to over €100 million.