During the first quarter of 2018, the Polish retail market witnessed investment transactions totalling over €1.7 billion. This is the largest volume ever recorded in Q1 on the market. JLL summarised Q1 2018 on the retail market in Poland.

After the excellent results recorded in 2017, Warsaw's office market continued performing well in Q1 2018. Vacancy rates are decreasing while demand stands at 202,000 sqm. 770,000 sqm of office space is under construction. There is also a growing demand for flexible space, and state-of-the-art technological solutions. JLL summarised the situation on the Warsaw office market at the end of Q1 2018.

Gross take-up (including renegotiations and subleases) on the Prague office market in the first quarter of 2018 amounted to 85,700 sqm, representing a decrease of 51% compared to the previous quarter and a decrease of 19% in year-on-year comparison. The Prague Research Forum announced the office market figures for Q1 2018.

The Polish government’s bill on supporting new investments will introduce new regulations on state aid and operation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). It is estimated that the proposed amendments will attract more than PLN 2.5 billion worth of investments in the first year of the new regulations being in force and result in 200,000 new jobs created within ten years. Michał Rafałowicz, Head of the Pomeranian Region at Cresa Poland analysed the impact of the new SEZ act.

Tenant requirements have changed significantly which means that offices need to be maintained at the highest quality in order to retain the workforce. Panellists discussed the future of the office market at the Portfolio FM & Office 2018 conference that was held in Budapest last week.

Total demand on the Budapest industrial market amounted to 103,790 sqm in Q1 2018, marking a 45% year-on-year increase. At the end of the first quarter, there were only four existing schemes with more than 5,000 sqm of available warehouse space. The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial market analysis.

Penta Investments closed 2017 with a profit of €236 million and its portfolio companies' total assets grew by 6 % to €9 billion. Fortuna, Dr.Max , Prima banka and Privatbanka were the most profitable companies, Penta Real Estate's development activities also contributed to the success. The largest expenditure was allocated for investment in the retail, real estate, healthcare and manufacturing sectors.

Just because technology can do something does it necessarily mean that we want it to? This was just one of the many topics that Czech professionals discussed at the latest RICS event in Prague which analysed the rapidly evolving relationship of property and technology.

The office vacancy rate has decreased to 7.3%, representing a 0.2 pps reduction quarter-on-quarter - the lowest rate ever recorded on Budapest office market. The Budapest Research Forum published its latest figures.

As a result of large portfolio transactions, the first quarter of 2018 on the Polish real estate investment market closed with a record investment volume of ca. €2.05 billion, according to Savills. Taking into account the number and volume of ongoing transactions, we may expect another very good year on the investment market.