Budapest’s office market hasn’t collapsed but it has undergone a significant transformation over the past 12 months, and now the new normal has to be redefined, Valter Kalaus, Managing Director of consulting firm VLK Cresa explains.

After the great year in 2019 and a very good start to 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has halted the expansion of Asian investment funds in Poland. However, analysts are convinced that it is just a temporary situation and a new transaction closed this month also suggests that the flow of Asian capital has not dried up.

Due to the pandemic, the construction industry in Hungary last year registered a significant fall and the last quarter couldn’t save the year either. The latest EBI Construction Activity Report has found that Q4 2020, similarly to the low-value Q4 2019, saw the start of construction works at a value of HUF 442 billion. Owing to the massive drop in mid-2020, 15% less construction work started than in 2019 and 30% less than in 2018. In 2020 the Activity Start Indicator of the EBI Construction Activity Report accounted for less than HUF 2000 billion and the decline affected all major subsectors.

Attila Kovács, who founded DVM Group in 1995 and Horizon Development in 2006, passed away in February 2021, the two companies announced.

Based on independent external appraisals, CA Immo expects a property valuation effect of approx. €205 million (€2.07 per share) for the fourth quarter. The increase in value will more than compensate for the valuation loss of €21.5 million (€0.22 per share) booked in the first three quarters of 2020.

The total investment volume achieved in 2020 in the SEE region amounted to €766 million representing a 17% decline in transaction volume in comparison to the year before, according to CBRE’s market report summarising H2 2020 on the investment market.

In 2020 the coronavirus pandemic pushed Poland into its first recession in 30 years following a GDP contraction of around 2.8%. According to Moody’s forecasts, implications of the second wave of the pandemic will reverberate through the economy also during the first quarter of 2021. The second quarter is, however, likely to see a recovery and this year’s GDP growth is expected to reach approximately 4%. Cushman & Wakefield summarised 2020 on the Warsaw office market.

Although the Czech Republic spent Q4 in a state of emergency, with borders being more closed more often than open towards the year’s end, the Czech real estate investment market finished on less than record-breaking results but, considering the challenging year, it was far from being bad, according to Colliers International’s latest investment market report.

CTP has announced a 15% annual growth which helped the company reach €344 million of annualised rental income by the end of 2020. With a portfolio of 6.3 million sqm and 740,000 sqm under construction at year-end 2020, CTP solidified its position as the largest logistics property owner and developer based on GLA in the Czech Republic, Romania and Serbia while announcing new developments in Austria, Poland and Bulgaria.

The office space market in Bucharest registered a total volume of transactions of approximately 240,000 sqm in 2020, a level similar to that of 2015, CBRE data shows.