The Warsaw office market maintains its strong momentum. This year’s total supply is expected to surpass 300,000 sqm, office take-up rose in the first three quarters of 2017 by 11.2% compared with the same period of 2016 and the vacancy rate is falling, shows the latest report by tenant-only advisory firm Cresa. The growth of the SSC/BPO sector and potential Brexit are likely to drive the Warsaw market going forward.

The outlook for Central and Eastern European markets is still positive according to the RICS Commercial Property Monitor. Results for Q3 2017 show that both occupier and investment demand are still on the rise across the region. The peak of the current cycle is, however, undoubtedly getting closer.

Although demand slightly decreased on the Prague office market in Q3 2017, the vacancy rate further declined to its current level of 7.7%, JLL reports.

The industrial, logistics and office sectors in Bucharest were the drivers of the real estate development market in the first nine months of the year, while the retail sector recorded the lowest growth rate in terms of projects delivered in this period of time. On the property investment market, the retail sector was the star, cumulating 60% of the volume traded in the first nine months.

The total floorspace in shopping centres across Europe increased by 1.17 million sqm to 160.8 million sqm at the midpoint of 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Since the beginning of 2017, a total of 57,850 sqm of new shopping centre space has been completed in the Czech Republic. The figure includes the extension of IGY České Budějovice by 9,250 sqm, an extension of the Chodov Centre by 35,000 sqm and the newly built Central Jablonec with a floor space of 13,600 sqm. This represents a 67% growth over the previous year. However, the market will deliver markedly less shopping centre space next year. According to current information, just one shopping centre will be completed – the Géčko in Ostrava. By contrast, several major projects will open after 2019.

Q3 2017 saw the delivery of 875,000 sqm of new space on the industrial market in Poland. In the same period, approximately 630,000 sqm was leased. JLL summarised the industrial market in Poland at the end of Q3 2017.

In Q3 the modern retail market in Poland grew by nearly 140,000 sqm of GLA. This is a significant increase as compared to the first half of the year when only a mere 26,000 sqm of GLA within 5 schemes were completed. Notably, the first IKEA store was delivered in Lublin with the residents of Poland’s eastern regions in mind. According to BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland, the end of the year is set to bring more than 200,000 of GLA sqm in new retail projects.

The Bucharest office market saw a net take-up of close to 45,000 sqm in this year’s third quarter. According to data from Colliers International, the demand came mostly from IT and BPO/SSC companies, including from the new entries in the market: Amazon, GoPro and Systematic.

In Q3 2017, the stock of modern office space in Warsaw has increased by more than 76,000 sqm and thus exceeded the 5.3 million sqm threshold. By the end of the year, another 80,000 sqm may appear on the largest office market of Poland, which would mean a total of 5.4 million sqm. The key market development trends, according to the report by BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland, are the consistently improving position of the Wola district on the local office market and the growing popularity of co-working projects located in the best schemes.

Poland’s warehouse supply hit a record high at the end of Q3 2017. The industrial stock totalled 12.86 million sqm, which represented an 18% rise year-on-year. Tenant demand remained robust on the country’s core warehouse markets, driven largely by logistics operators whose share in total take-up amounted to 45%. The vacancy rate slipped down by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year while headline and effective rents remained largely unchanged, reveals Cushman & Wakefield.