Preliminary data has revealed an increase in shopping centre footfall on Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays, and a decrease on Saturdays. Cushman & Wakefield presented a summary of the first quarter of 2018 on the Polish retail market in its latest report.

The Polish industrial market just closed its best start to the year to date with demand hitting around 1.1 million sqm. Furthermore, 1.8 million sqm of warehouse space is currently under construction. JLL summarised the condition of the industrial and warehouse market in Poland at the end of Q1 2018.

The CEE hotel market experienced rapid growth in the last three years both in terms of hotel performance and transaction volume due to the dynamically expanding tourism industry. Within the region, the Budapest hotel market has seen exceptional growth, as its RevPAR (revenue per available room) growth outpaced the key regional capital cities, according to Colliers International's latest hotel market study.

Whilst Prague 4 is the largest market, over the next two years, most of the new supply will be delivered to Prague 8. In perspective, it could overtake Prague 1 by market share and become the third largest office submarket in the capital. In 2018 and 2019, almost 27% of new offices that are currently under construction will be completed in Prague 8. The largest of the planned projects is Palmovka Open Park, thanks to which office space in Prague 8 will expand by almost 25,000 sqm at the end of Q2 2018. Regarding the intensity of construction, Prague 4 is in second place with 22% of the offices under construction. The third place belongs to Prague 5, where 19% of new construction will be completed.

In terms of size, Łódź is currently the sixth largest regional office market in Poland. Investors are attracted by the city's extensive pool of specialists and an increasingly strong business brand. Experts from JLL indicate that the increasing maturity of the Łódź office market is contributing to the development of state-of-the-art office clusters in the city.

Nearly 55% of last year’s supply of new offices in Budapest came in the form of two schemes: Timpuri Noi Square I & II (33 000 sqm) and The Bridge (36 000 sqm). It is thanks to these developments that the total office stock in Romania’s capital reached the threshold of approx. 3.2 million sqm. BNP Paribas Real estate’s analysis highlights that tenant expectations in respect of high-quality space made developers focus mainly on supplying Class A office buildings to the market.

Automation and digitisation penetrating all spheres of life also have a material impact on the economy. Experts of Cushman & Wakefield have identified five key factors that will shape the retail and warehouse market growth going forward.

Colliers International has carried out research into retail units in the Warsaw’s office buildings. The study covered approximately 300 buildings and a survey was carried out on a sample of 200 employees. Colliers experts asked respondents about their expectations about the quality of the retail and service units in their workplace and what they have available at present.

The Polish office market closed Q1 2018 with sound demand, a drop in vacancy rates and 1.8 million sqm of office space under construction. JLL summarised the situation on the Polish office market in Q1 2018.

Market players still look positively toward the future of Central and Eastern European property markets but they are visibly less buoyant than they were during most of 2017. Results for Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary are the most positive, while in Romania the picture is rather mixed. All data points to the Czech investment market being in a state close to peaking.