Student housing continued its record growth last year, booking over €9bn in international transactions, excluding the US. As student numbers are growing faster than supply, the asset class remains a top-4 sector prospect for investments in 2020, as shown by a recent study carried out by global research specialist Bonard.

Christie & Co recently launched their new report focusing on the hostel markets in Vienna, Prague and Budapest. The report shows an overview of the business model itself, key characteristics, the evolution of the hostel concept and gives a deeper insight of the mentioned markets: Vienna, Prague and Budapest, in terms of demand, supply and especially branded supply.

Overall in 2019, total gross take-up on the Prague office market reached 439,000 sqm, representing a decrease of 18% in year-on-year comparison. The Prague Research Forum announced the office market figures for Q4 2019.

Almost 800,000 sqm of office space is currently under construction in Warsaw of which approx. 55% will be delivered in 2020, according to the latest Savills research. The capital city of Poland continues to be a big construction site, mostly due to very strong demand for the office space with its record-high levels recorded in 2019.

Budapest’s certified green office stock of 630,000 at 2015 year-end had increased to over 1,500,000 sqm by the end of 2019, more than doubling the amount of green office space. This represents 40% of the total modern office stock in the Hungarian market. There have also been doubles in the number of certified office buildings or office fit-outs, which increased from 46 to 105, according to the latest green building infographic analysis of Colliers International.

Demand on the Warsaw office market reached 880,000 sqm with 225,000 sqm in the form of pre-lets. JLL summarised the situation on the Polish office market at the end of 2019.

Total demand on the Budapest industrial market amounted to 88,230 sqm in Q4 2019, indicating a 16% decrease on a yearly basis. Leasing activity was driven by renewals (86%), followed by expansion (12.8%) and new leases (2.6%). The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial market analysis.

The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and its alliance partner Facility Management Netherlands (FMN) have announced that in 2020 World Workplace Europe will again be held at the Kromhouthal in Amsterdam, 18 to 20 March. Property Forum is proud to support the event as media partner.

Developers operating on the six largest Polish cities sold a total of 17,600 units in the fourth quarter of 2019, which is 9% more than in the previous quarter. This increased annual sales to 65,400 units, which is nearly 1% better than last year. It was also the second-best result in the history of the primary housing market in Poland, according to JLL’s report.

The Expoziției Area attracted almost 15% of the total demand for office spaces registered last year in Bucharest, thus entering the top 5 areas preferred by companies to locate their offices, at a very short distance from Center - West, the most dynamic area in the last 3-4 years, according to JLL: