As COVID-19 restrictions are being gradually lifted, many employers are looking for solutions to enable workers to return safely to offices. However, the social distancing rules that are still in place are giving rise to many questions about protocols that should be introduced in the workplace. Savills has launched a special service and published a free guide titled Return to the Office.

Retailers active in grocery, healthcare, consumer and diversified products will lead a sharp rise in demand for logistics real estate in the next two to three years as industries across the board implement lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and adapt their supply chains to the “new normal”, Prologis predicts in a new research report.

Savills has examined the key trends set to determine future global real estate investment activity in a series of articles and interviews launched today as part of its Impacts research programme, where the international real estate advisor studies the various social, environmental, demographic and technological ‘tipping points’ immediately facing global real estate.      

A comprehensive outlook on the European property investment landscape as well as the current challenges and opportunities the valuation profession faces were discussed at the latest online event organised by Property Forum and RICS. We summarised the key messages of our two keynote speakers.

The National Federation of Hungarian Building Contractors (ÉVOSZ) expects orders that were never placed in the last two months will be arriving in mid-June. 

CPI Property Group published an update on the Group’s efforts to flatten debt maturities, reduce gross leverage and fortify operating position.

Immofinanz expects a substantial improvement in rental income and the results of operations for the first quarter of 2020. The estimated increases range from 13.0% to 15.0% versus Q1 2019.

Reopening the office requires rethinking the daily experience and setting clear protocols for how everything in the office operates while managing the health and safety risks of our employees. How the returning to work is managed will be critical for employee health and well-being but also for the confidence in their employer and landlord, according to the latest data from CBRE.

As the first coronavirus cases were registered in Hungary at the beginning of March, the effect of the epidemic on first-quarter figures might have been smaller. The epidemic may affect the construction industry in two ways. Projects that have already started may stop or may continue at a slower pace and it may hold back the value of projects entering construction phase.  Results show that there was a massive decline in the value of completed projects already in Q1 2020. The value of the Activity Completion Indicator of the EBI Construction Activity Report in the domestic construction industry decreased by 29% due to the epidemic, and several hundred projects were delayed.

Shopping centres in Poland were reopened on 4 May. This is an indication that there’s light at the end of the tunnel for landlords and tenants, but the ongoing pandemic will have an enormous impact on the entire retail industry. Sylwia Wiszowata-Łazarz and Joanna Kłusek from Cushman & Wakefield talked about the current market situation, changing consumer habits and what actions to take to ensure a safe return of shoppers to brick-and-mortar stores.