Building construction markets of the Balkan EECFA countries as a whole have shown resistance during the pandemic so far. Nonetheless, the region is foreseen to have yet another negative year in 2021, before expansion can return in 2022. The EECFA (Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association) has released its Construction Forecast Report for winter 2020.

2020 has been dominated on the commercial real estate market in Poland by the pandemic, whose impact varied from sector to sector though. The pandemic has, however, given rise to or accelerated a number of developments, some of which are likely to stay with us for longer. Real estate advisory firm Savills explores future trends in its preliminary summary of 2020 and its outlook for the next 12 months.

The overall volume of transactions in the commercial property sector in the Czech Republic should reach €1.2 billion this year. This means a 63% decrease compared with last year, which in turn was more successful than average. Considering the complications that the coronavirus pandemic caused to the economy, such a result is quite satisfactory and attests to the lasting investor appetite. In addition, an increase to almost twice this year’s volume can be expected next year. The fact that real estate prices remain stable is also positive.

A new railway line connecting Bucharest’s main railway station Gara de Nord to the Henri Coanda International Airport has been inaugurated over the weekend. Trains depart every 40 minutes with a one-way trip taking about 20 minutes. The price of a one-way ticket is RON 4 (around €0.82).

The impacts of COVID-19 have been felt far and wide across industries, and especially so for the travel and tourism industry. Cushman & Wakefield has published its Q3 Budapest Hospitality Marketbeat report.  

The Q3 2020 property investment volume for Romania is estimated at €408 million, a value approximately 68% higher than the one registered in the same period in 2019. Although the road ahead is marked by uncertainty, considering the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions associated with it, there is a consistent pipeline of deals which could be closed soon and throughout 2021. JLL has published its Bucharest City Report for Q3 2020. The report provides a detailed analysis of specific real estate markets in Bucharest: office, retail, industrial and residential.

The occupancy costs of office spaces represent, on average, between 3- 4% of the turnover of services companies in Bucharest, and they may fall even below 2%, in some cases, according to an analysis by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

The availability of housing in Prague has slightly improved this year, but it is still incomparably worse than in the surrounding metropolises. The inhabitants of Prague have to work 13.9 years for an average 70 sqm apartment. In Vienna, for example, such a purchase only cost 8.7 annual salaries. Compared to last year, a slight improvement was registered in 2020, but the effect of the coronavirus crisis has not yet been reflected in wage statistics, according to Czech residential developer Central Group.

According to full-year economic outlooks, the Polish economy will contract by 3-3.5% in 2020 compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, Poland’s GDP is expected to return to growth in 2021 and expand by approximately 4% in 2020, reveals the latest report from global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.

The great majority of shopping centres in the Czech Republic should reopen on Thursday 3 December. The footfall and revenue figures show that customers have not given up on visiting shopping centres in the long-term perspective or changed their shopping habits dramatically. Following the reopening after the first wave of the corona crisis, both performance indicators grew again, and revenue even exceeded last year’s figures in a year-on-year comparison. The impact on footfall and turnover was lower in the second wave, with footfall slightly growing in recent weeks. Considering that Christmas is coming, we can expect customers to return to shopping centres quickly as soon as they are allowed to, resulting in an exceptional increase in footfall and revenue.