Poland’s industrial and warehouse sector recorded the strongest first quarter in its history. Schemes with the total area of 592,000 sqm were delivered to the market between January and the end of March, which represents as much as 45% of the total volume of 2016. BNP Paribas Real Estate highlights that the invariable driving force behind the market’s growth for the past several quarters have been businesses from the e-commerce sector.

The Budapest office market is booming and as the needs of tenants are changing, developers need to pay attention not only to sustainability but to employee well-being as well. Panelists at Portfolio’s FM & Office 2017 conference in Budapest talked about the future of the office market in the capital.

In Q1 2017 a total of 970,000 sqm was leased on the warehouse market in Poland, 42% more than in Q1 2016. Developers put into operation 475,000 sqm and over 1.4 million sqm are under construction. Results for the first quarter of 2017 allow optimistic forecasts for the coming months according to AXI IMMO’s latest report.

There is currently 1.66 million sqm of office space under development in Poland, of which 965,000 is located outside Warsaw. Historically, this is the highest construction activity registered on Poland's regional markets, JLL reports. During the first three months of 2017, companies signed lease agreements for 371,700 sqm of office space, of which 177,700 sqm was leased on markets outside Warsaw. 

Fenced-off construction sites, scaffold-enfolded buildings and grandiose developments – often only in plans – have become characteristic of the Budapest property market. Just four years after the deepest point of the recession, there is hardly any indication of those hard times left. The upwards trend exists not only on the residential market, but also on the office market, which impacts the majority of companies and employees. The largest investors adapted to the renewed demand and began building massive numbers of office buildings, and entire new areas of the city are being born.

After record-breaking 2016, there are still good prospects ahead of Poland’s warehouse market. Regional markets will gain in attractiveness owing to the improving transport infrastructure, availability of investment lands and employees that begin to lack on the most popular markets – according to a report by Colliers International entitled “New locations, new possibilities. Logistic centres vs. labour market”, which was prepared in cooperation with Randstad Poland. 

Retail property investments continue to attract investors´ attention within the EMEA region as well as in the Czech Republic. Due to a lack of quality retail schemes available for purchase in the European core markets, investors´ interest has been broadening in terms of geographies as well as retail asset classes. The latest JLL study summarises the trends on the European retail market from an investors´ perspective. 

During the last three years, companies have leased nearly 4 million sqm of modern office space in Poland. Taking the dynamic development of firms into consideration, 2017-2019 can generate office demand of up to 5 million sqm, JLL predicts.

CBRE sees continuing strong demand from investors in the Czech Republic across the core sectors of office, retail and industrial with an increased demand for more specialist sectors such as hotels and residential. The retail sector in Q1 clearly dominated with more than €900 million transacted, followed by the office sector with a 20% share of total market volume.

Tenant representation is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon on the office markets of Central Europe, which is without a doubt a sign of a healthy, growing and more educated market. Their activity, however, often raises ethical questions as it’s still often unclear who pays for their services. Conflict of interest in tenant representation has been one of the key topics of two regional events: the Property Forum - RICS Prague Property Summit 2017 and the latest RICS Hungary Tea & Talk in Budapest.