ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG report

Commercial real estate investment remained strong across Europe in Q2 2016 totaling €54.0 billion, up 2.5 per cent on Q1 2016 and 30.4 per cent on the ten year average. Investment into CEE countries for H1 2016 registered a substantial increase (59%) compared to same period of last year, reaching almost €5 billion. Expectations are that for the entire year, investment volumes will reach and exceed the record volumes of 2015, with all CEE countries expected to perform strongly.

Renewals dominated the Budapest industrial property market in the second three months of the year where the vacancy rate has increased for the first time in nearly three years. The Budapest Research Forum has published its Q2 2016 industrial market snapshot.  

Cushman & Wakefield has published its new CE industrial map to give a comprehensive overview of the most important logistics and industrial sites in Central Europe, Russia and Germany. In addition, this year’s edition has been expanded with figures for Italy’s Milan.

“Total commercial real estate investment in the Czech Republic recorded €490m in Q2 2016 contributing to an H1 2016 total of €950 million, a 26% reduction on the same period of last year. However, it should be noted that the considerable difference is due to the Palladium shopping centre transaction in H1 2015. When excluded, H1 2016 was 34% up on H1 2015,” says Jiri Horak, investment analyst at JLL.     

The sharp rebound of the Hungarian real estate investment market witnessed in H2 2015 has gained further momentum during the first half of this year. According to JLL the transaction volume of the first semester reached more than EUR 910 million, already more than during the full 2015 year, highlighting the increasing weight of capital targeting Hungarian assets.

Last year has proven to be a turning point for the Romanian investment market. An increased number and more diverse group of investors started looking at individual assets and portfolios, resulting in the largest number of transactions since the beginning of the crisis. Will this upward trend continue into 2016 and 2017? We report from SEE Property Forum 2016, a conference co-organised by Portfolio Conferences and RICS, where the biggest players of the Romanian investment market came together to talk about the future. 

The total modern office stock in Warsaw reached 4.75 million sqm at the end of Q1 2016. As much as ca. 75% of this space is located in the central Core and Fringe zones, as well as Upper South and South West. Cushman & Wakefield has published the sixth edition of their Skyline Tracker report, outlining developers’ activity in the Warsaw office market.

Q1 2016 saw a further increase in leasing and development activity on the industrial and warehouse property market in Poland, according to the latest report by Cushman & Wakefield. Total modern warehouse stock has exceeded 10.3 million sqm.

The fact that Budapest is competing for the right to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics has now Been decided, as the capital submitted the initial application materials in the middle of February. The next big question is, will the choice of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) really fall on Budapest, and if so, will the city manage to prepare for the games in time and in a sustainable manner.

The size of office space lease and sale transactions in Moscow involving foreign companies decreased from 40% to 20% in Q1 2016 compared to Q4 2015. Although foreign companies continue to sign new deals, they are choosing smaller offices and re-negotiating current leases to decrease the amount of occupied space, according to a report by the international consulting company Colliers international.