Market players are optimistic of the future of the SEE property market, according to the speakers of Balkans Property Forum 2018, co-organized by Property Forum and RICS in Belgrade, which brought together more than 150 industry experts.

Deals of over €4 billion have been signed during the last five years on the Romanian real estate market, with the most active buyers being investors from South Africa, with a market share of 28%, followed by Greek investors (14%), French (10%) and Romanians (7%), according to an analysis by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, commercial real estate in the first three quarters of 2018 the total investment volume in six CEE countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Russia) reached €8.9 billion. Investment activity in Poland exceeded the value recorded for the whole of 2017 and is expected to reach a record high of €6 billion by the year’s end. The sustainable and solid performance was recorded in Hungary and Slovakia with volumes hitting those in 2017, whereas Russia, the Czech Republic and Romania are expected to close the year at lower investment volumes, slightly below the 2017 levels.

The tight labour market is changing the way developers think. While designing an office building they think not only about who will lease space, but also what they should do to make people want to work there, says Artur Sutor, Partner and Head of Office Department at Cresa Poland.

According to the latest report by JLL, Disruption or Distraction, the flexible office space sector in Europe has more than doubled since 2014, and could grow by up to 30% per year over the next five years. These forecasts - based on an analysis of 20 major European markets - also include Warsaw, which dominates the Polish flex market.

Talent availability is the primary factor when choosing a new location, according to a survey that Cushman & Wakefield in conjunction with CoreNet Global conducted every year since 2016. C&W surveyed global corporate real estate executives across a variety of industry sectors focusing on their key office location strategies and decision drivers worldwide.

According to Cresa, Warsaw’s total office stock has risen by more than 3.75% over the year to 5.42 million sqm and the absorption rate is down by 1.4% compared with Q3 2017. The vacancy rate is at 10%.

Even though we are currently in the late phase of the real estate cycle, no significant drop is expected in the coming period. Jos Tromp MRICS, CBRE’s Head of EMEA Research shared his projections for the European property investment market at Portfolio Property Investment Forum in Budapest. These were his key statements and predictions.

A fleeting trend or a well-thought-out strategy? Cushman & Wakefield presented a report on the use of commercial buildings’ rooftops.

In the third quarter of 2018, the Polish warehouse market was bolstered by 683,400 sqm of new supply. At the end of September, storage space in Poland exceeded 15 million sqm, which means that in the last 5 years the total surface volume has doubled. Almost 2 million sqm remains under construction, of which more than 25% in Central Poland.