The residential and office markets have received the lion's share of attention in Budapest recently, but the retail market is also gaining more interest from both tenants and investors. Tourism is booming, domestic purchasing power is growing and the only thing that can hinder growth is the lack of available space and new developments on the market.

Savills has listed the trends dominating Warsaw’s office market. The most important observation is the creation of a new group of tenants – co-working space operators, which generate an increasing share of demand. Also, as a result of Brexit, up to 4,000 new jobs can be created in Warsaw and the falling unemployment rate will increase the importance of office space in attracting best talents.

The rapid growth of e-commerce is unlikely to put an end to existence of physical stores. Both online and offline platforms will co-exist, becoming increasingly intertwined. However, in-store technology innovations will change shopper behaviours in shopping centres. These are the key findings revealed in the Retail Revolutions report by Savills.

Occupier and investment sentiment continues to be positive across Central and Eastern Europe according to the RICS Commercial Property Monitor for Q1 2017. Similarly to last quarter, Hungary remains the most upbeat market globally with the Czech Republic also performing remarkably well. The picture is slightly more mixed in Croatia and Romania, still, near term momentum remains positive in the two markets.

Central Europe’s smallest capital has attracted a lot of interest from investors in 2016 with more and more major players keeping their eyes on Bratislava in 2017. Nearly 20 speakers and more than 100 guests came together in the Slovak capital at the first ever Bratislava Property Summit, organised by Property Forum in cooperation with RICS.

Some 75% of modern office stock in Prague is located within a 10-minute walk from a metro station, making the underground network a crucial feature of successful office projects in the Czech capital, according to Prague Office Metro Map,  the latest research from Colliers International.

In Q1 2017, Poland’s total Class A warehouse stock topped 11,613,000 sqm following the completion of nearly 533,000 sqm. Total take-up hit 925,000 sqm, representing a 45% increase, as revealed by Cushman & Wakefield in its latest report.

In 2017, 151,000 sqm of new office premises will be added to the Prague Market. This represents an increase of 13% above ten-year average. JLL listed the most important players on the office development market in Prague.

Investment flows into the CEE region rose 70% year-on-year in Q1 2017. The level of €2.8 billion is some €0.5 billion higher than the preliminary estimate of €2.3 billion Colliers International published at the beginning of April. Money invested into the Czech Republic  (56% share) and Hungary (19% share) contributed particularly to the significant jump. Looking within the numbers, the retail sector accounted for nearly half (47%) of the flows, leaving the office sector trailing with a 21% share. Of interest and also a sign of buoyant economic growth, the fastest growth was seen in the hotel sector with a portfolio transaction contributing to the €415mn total (a 15% share). 

The Czech property market saw exceptionally strong investment flows into commercial real estate in Q1 2017 worth €1.57 billion, which was almost double the transaction value compared with the same period of last year, according to Colliers International.