Hong Kong Central remained the most expensive office market in the world, according to CBRE’s annual Global Prime Office Occupancy Costs report.

PropTech influencers James Dearsley and Eddie Holmes have raised £150,000 of pre-seed funding from a raft of significant strategic investors to build the first global PropTech information and data platform. The new platform, called Unissu, provides the richest dataset of PropTech companies, information and research. Currently in closed beta, it will formally launch later this year.

Governments worldwide have been gradually forging greater transparency in real estate markets, addressing growing demands from investors and the public to deliver significant change. JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index reports slow but steady progress driven by increased regulations and new technology.

From July onwards, entrepreneurs in Poland will decide whether to apply the split payment mechanism (SPM). As announced by the Polish Ministry of Finance, entities making split payments will be considered to be entrepreneurs of strong commercial integrity and business professionalism. Experts of Cresa Poland and tax specialists of Crido Taxand say whether it advisable to make use of the new regulations in their joint review “Commercial Real Estate Tax & Business Digest”.

The amount of office space currently under development in Prague is higher than ever. 136,000 sqm was completed in 2017 and an additional 165,000 sqm of modern office space should be delivered to the market in 2018. This is the highest development rate since 2008. Despite that, the vacancy rate has dropped to a record low of 6.2 per cent. This is a year-on-year decrease of more than 3 percentage points. This should change, however, with seven new office buildings due to be completed this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

It can’t be repeated often enough that technology is changing the game in real estate. Proptechs are disrupting the status quo and those who aren’t already thinking about what users are going to need in the future will get left behind. Property Forum presents 5 key statements from the first day of MIPIM PropTech Europe in Paris.

New research released on the opening day of MIPIM PropTech Europe in Paris suggests that real estate companies need to do more to embrace opportunities presented by new technology.

19 % of all existing shopping centres in the Czech Republic have been refurbished to date. Further revitalizations are yet to be completed, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Romania ranks 6th in the top destinations in the data centres market in Europe, while the Nordics and the Netherlands occupy the first positions, according to Savills’ new Data Centre Investment Index. The number of data centres is multiplying to accommodate the surging demand for data storage. Thus, the need to have smaller scale domestic facilities to comply with data and privacy laws is set to lead to an uptick in activity across all of Europe.

Technology is changing the world of property all over the world. Here are our 10 key takeaways from PropTech360, Israel’s first global real estate and technology summit, hosted in Jerusalem last week.