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.

CPI Property Group’s property portfolio increased by 8% to €9.9 billion compared to the end of 2019, primarily due to the acquisition of six office properties in Warsaw, Poland and a 29.4% stake in Globalworth Real Estate Investments Limited. CPIPG published unaudited financial results for the third quarter of 2020.

Companies today are facing complex performance challenges as the COVID-19 resurgence heightens the need to reinvigorate employee engagement. JLL’s new “Human Experience” report explores these changing workforce dynamics and expectations in a post-pandemic world and offers insights for how forward-thinking companies can reimagine their approach to managing their people and workplaces to stay ahead in 2021.

The geopolitical diversity of the EMEA region means that there are multiple economic and business permutations to consider in light of a new first term for President Biden and the Democratic party. There is a strong likelihood that the EU and national EEA (European Economic Area) governments will cooperate more openly with the United States under President Biden. Outside of the EEA, in Middle East, Africa, Russia and Turkey ongoing relationships will be more mixed.