Bucharest’s central business district developed around Victoriei Square is registering an upward evolution in office activity, with a historic record-high volume in take-up and positive growth in pipeline stock, as showed by the latest office analysis conducted by Activ Property Services.

Colliers International sees the most important macro indicator for CEE in 2019, Eurozone interest rates, flat-lining at zero. This should stem some of the potential angst over tightening credit conditions, keep liquidity high, buyers interested and help pricing to plateau. Colliers International foresees selective compression in capital city prime office yields and still like the logistics sector. Absent a Eurozone financial crisis, funding from lenders should remain a support. Colliers International published its latest CEE report.

At the end of 2018, Warsaw’s total office stock stood at 5.46 million sqm. Despite last year’s supply gap, which is expected to carry into 2019, new supply totalled 232,700 sqm delivered across 20 office projects, down by 70,000 sqm on the five-year average for 2012–2017. Cushman & Wakefield presented a summary of 2018 on the Warsaw office market.

According to JLL, CEE's real estate investment transactional volume for 2018 was in excess of €13.23 billion and recorded an 11% increase over 2017 (€11.92 billion). JLL has registered continued appetite from investors for the full range of assets across the entire region. Poland smashed its previous record volume set in 2006 (€5.05 billion) with a spectacular €7.2 billion traded, and secured a massive regional share of 54%. Poland was followed by the Czech Republic (€2.51 billion - 19% share), Hungary (€1.85 billion - 14%), Romania (€900 million - 7%) and Slovakia (€820 million - 6%).

The Budapest office market enjoyed a dynamic year in terms of gross take-up, equating to nearly 535,000 sqm of office space transacted, effectively in line with the record year of 2015 which saw circa 538,000 sqm.

Last year an astonishing 860,000 sqm of office space was leased, with the vacancy rate dropping 8.7%, and new supply totalling 230,000 sqm. Currently, the total under-construction volume stands at 720,000 sqm. JLL summarised the Warsaw office market in 2018.

In last 10 years, student housing has evolved into a highly appealing asset class, now ranked fourth for development and investment by over 200 investment managers. With student numbers growing and revenues delivering as promised, even during economic downturns, it is regarded as a crisis-resilient asset class, good for investment in 2019, according to a new study released by student housing research specialist StudentMarketing.

Total demand on the Budapest office market reached 171,490 sqm in Q4 2018, representing a 19% growth year-on-year. The office vacancy rate stands at 7.3%, representing a 90 basis points increase quarter-on-quarter and a 20 basis points reduction year-on-year. The Budapest Research Forum published its latest figures.

Construction and assembly output generated by Polish construction companies in foreign markets has hit an all-time high of €1.55 billion, but this is still below the potential of domestic contractors. Importantly, a considerable change to the structure of companies engaged in foreign orders took place in recent years – the centre of gravity has shifted from the biggest construction groups to smaller companies with a specialised focus.

2018 ended with a significant premiere on the local real estate market: Romanian investors ranked second in the generated volumes by nationality. Almost €200 million were spent to buy commercial properties (about a quarter of the total volume), a significant leap of more than five times compared with 2017, according to Colliers International.