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.

The expected reduction in construction activity in 2019 indicates the maturity of the traditional retail format market. New opportunities for owners and tenants come in the form of mixed-use projects and omni-channel retailing. JLL summarised the Polish retail market in 2018.

Stable rents and yields unscathed by increasing supply of office and industrial space – this is what Cushman & Wakefield Forton expects to see on the Bulgarian commercial property market in 2019, according to the company’s latest forecast.

2018 was an all-time record year for the real estate investment market in Poland with more than 100 transactions completed with a total volume of over €7.2 billion, reflecting an impressive nearly 45% growth year-on-year, according to Savills.

Służewiec, a district in Warsaw and one of the largest and most prominent business districts in Poland, currently offers nearly 1.1 million sqm of modern office space. According to recent estimates, there is approx. 87,000 office personnel employed in the area. As the needs of staff and residents of the city change, there is a groundswell of opinion suggesting that this part of Warsaw needs a new strategy and a fresh action plan. What activities would contribute to the improved functioning and more favorable perception of this district as well as maintaining its attractiveness as a key business hub?

According to Knight Frank’s global report, residential prices in Budapest grew by 19% y-o-y in Q3 2018, registering the third largest growth rate in the world. Zagreb also registered a growth rate above 10%.

After the success of Madrid and Milan, the RICS is delighted to announce the European Retail Conference will return in 2019 in a brand-new location – Amsterdam on the 12th February 2019. The focus of the 2019 conference is how innovators, disruptors, and business model shifts are shaking up the retail sector.

Unissu.com has today launched its platform to the property industry. The business, which has classified over 6000 PropTech businesses from around the world, aims to help property professionals navigate the ongoing digital transformation of the industry. Property Forum is the exclusive regional partner for Unissu in Central & Eastern Europe – Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

How are companies adapting to the changing trends in workplace solutions? What is fundamentally different in the requirements of younger employees? How can employees use the workplace as an expression of company identity? The participants of the office leasing panel at Balkans Property Forum 2018, moderated by Michael Smithing FRICS, Former Member of the Europe and Hungary Boards of RICS, discussed new trends in workplace solutions.

Large retail chains operating mainly in shopping centres maintained an average growth rate of 12% in 2018, similar to 2017 and double the advance in consumption, which increased by 5.9% during the first ten months of the year, according to the second edition of Retailers' METRICS study by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.