In 2016, new supply totalled 497,000 sqm on the Czech industrial market and at the end of the year a further 426,600 sqm of storage and industrial space was under construction. Prime headline rents achieved in the Czech Republic remained stable during Q4 2016 and currently stand at €4.25 sqm/month. The Industrial Research Forum has published its preliminary industrial market figures for Q2 2016.

International real estate advisor Savills has reported that investors into Europe’s retail sector are shifting their interest to some of the continent’s non-core markets. Investment into Europe’s retail sector during Q1-Q3 2016 reached €33.3 billion across the 15 markets that Savills covers, down 28% from the 2015 record volume. However, despite the overall drop of total turnover in the two largest markets of the UK (-18%) and Germany (-46%) during this time period, Europe’s non-core markets in contrast have experienced a significant rise in retail investment. These include: Ireland (223% to €1.46 billion); Poland (126% to €1.4 billion) and Italy (119% to €1.8 billion).

2016 saw the highest developer activity in the history of the Polish office market. New supply is expected to remain strong in 2017 with 1.4 million sqm of new space currently under development. JLL published its preliminary summary of Poland's office market performance in 2016

According to JLL’s review of last year, the Czech industrial market has exceeded the 6 million sqm mark in 2016 which makes it – along with the Polish one – one of the most advanced markets in CEE. 2016 gross-take up on the Czech industrial market totalled 1.2 million sqm which makes it one of the best years on record after the similarly successful years such of 2014 and 2015. Due to strong constant demand, the national average vacancy rate declined to 4%, which is the decade´s low and one of the lowest indicators in the market history. 

According to JLL’s preliminary forecasts, the total volume of real estate deals on the Polish investment market in 2016 may amount to almost €4.4 billion. The real standout performer was the retail market which came in with nearly €2 billion, followed by the office segment with €1.7 billion and the industrial/logistics sector with nearly €0.5 billion.

Hotel capacities in Hungary will grow by approximately 2,000 rooms over the next two years, which corresponds to 4,000 new hotel beds, so Hungary and in particular Budapest will be prepared to meet the tourism challenges of coming years, according to KPMG's latest analysis. 

During Q4 2016 the total commercial real estate investment transaction volume reached some €270 million in Hungary, pushing the 2016 volume to above €1.7 billion, the highest annual figure since 2007– according to JLL Hungary’s latest preliminary statistics. According to JLL Hungary’s preliminary statistics office transactions generated roughly 48% of the annual investment volumes, followed by retail (27%) and logistics (14%). Hungarian investors generated the highest share of the annual volumes (30%) followed by US-based (20%) and German (14%) investors.

Strong demand across all investment sectors is expected to continue into 2017 in the Czech Republic and the €3 billion boundary could be exceeded once again. Retail is likely to become the most popular asset class next year, followed by offices and industrial. CBRE has released the Czech Republic Real Estate Market Outlook 2017.

Last year few would have anticipated that commercial real estate investment volumes for Hungary would even reach €1 billion this year, yet now it seems sure that 2016 will be a record year on the investment market. Over €910 million have been transacted in the first half of the year and an astonishing amount of new deals were announced in the second part of 2016, especially in the last few weeks. Looking at the transactions that took place this year, two things seem certain: one is that several new entrants made purchases in 2016 and the other is that market transparency still has a long way to go. 

CBRE has published its inaugural Understanding European Technology Clusters report, highlighting the vibrancy and rapid growth of Europe’s tech sector. The report analyses the characteristics of tech clusters and explores future opportunities among high-performing, and emerging, tech cities across Europe.