The number of employees in Class A and B office buildings in Bucharest has reached about 253,000 at the end of the first semester of 2018, a slight increase compared to the end of 2017. In H1 2018, the number of employees working in companies with headquarters in modern office buildings in the capital increased by 3,000, according to estimates of Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. Considering the office projects whose delivery is announced for the second half of the year, the number of employees in modern office buildings in Bucharest could rise to 270,000 by the end of 2018.

At the end of H1 2018, there was more than 2.13 million sqm of warehouse and industrial space under construction across Poland with Central Poland accounting for more than one-fourth of the development pipeline, according to Cresa. Despite the healthy supply, the vacancy rate will remain below 5% this year and is likely to edge down to approximately 4% next year on account of a base effect and the expected robust occupier demand.

A strong increase in new supply is expected in the upcoming two years, however, most submarkets of the Budapest office market will still face rental growth in 2018. Sustained rental growth for Class A properties across all submarkets - except the Periphery - is forecasted. Rental growth on the Class B market is expected to be more moderate, driven both by Hungarian firms entering the institutional market and multinational firms seeking lower cost office options, according to Colliers International's latest, mid-year office market report.

More than 180,000 sqm of retail space was added to the Polish retail market in H1 2018 and another 330,000 sqm is expected to be completed by year-end 2018. This will represent an increase of over 25% year-on-year, bringing Poland’s total retail stock to more than 14,800,000 sqm. The new supply will be concentrated in cities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, accounting for 40% of this year’s openings. Cushman & Wakefield has published another edition of its MarketBeat report.

In H1 2018, demand on Poland’s industrial market was 2 million sqm - this is the best ever result recorded in the market’s history. In addition, industrial stock in Poland has now exceeded 14 million sqm, according to JLL.

How do you incorporate the creation of an office into your business strategy as to support the growth of the organization and those that form it? Karolina Dudek from the Office Agency department at BNP Paribas Real Estate and Szymon Boniecki and Bartosz Rega from Monterail provide answers in a market report to be published in September.

New research from Colliers International and Hotelschool The Hague reveals that despite many countries recently introducing legislation to restrict the use of Airbnb, the hospitality service continues to grow in five main European cities – London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid and Paris.

RICS has recently welcomed over 70 newly qualified professionals who have recently joined in Central & Eastern Europe, as a result of membership assessments held in Bucharest, Budapest, Prague and, for the first time, in Sofia.

The local industrial and logistics stock exceeded the 3 million sqm threshold, reaching 3.12 million sqm at the end of H1 2018, according to Romania's Industrial & Logistics Market H1 2018 report by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. Almost 90% of the current stock is concentrated in Bucharest and in five other cities - Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Ploiesti, Brasov and Pitesti.

Poland’s warehouse and logistics market is truly booming at the moment. The data for the first half of 2018 shows that, following last year’s success when the total volume of modern warehouse space increased by 21%, the market is not slowing down, according to BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland.