All segments of the Hungarian commercial property market have shown signs of strong growth over the last couple of years. Developers embark on a record number of new projects, but most of them soon realise that construction will take more time and be a lot more costly than they initially anticipated. The latest Tea & Talk session, organised by RICS Hungary in Budapest, helped us understand how rising construction costs and labour shortage in construction can be tackled.

The amount of industrial space leased in key Central and Eastern European markets in 2016 was the largest ever recorded, totalling 5.7 million sqm. This represents a 25% increase over the preceding two years when about 4.5 million sqm was leased. The strong take-up among tenants was linked with an extensive new development at 2.2 million sqm. The findings are based on the research conducted by Cushman & Wakefield, which has been monitoring the industrial property market in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia over an extended period.

Poland remains the powerhouse of Central and Eastern Europe attracting close to half the capital invested in the region over 2016 as activity grew 5% over the year to €5.2 billion. According to Cushman & Wakefield, with the uncertainty around upcoming elections in major European countries and the ongoing Brexit challenges, Poland and the CEE region will maintain their strong position as a focus for any pan-European investment strategy.

Occupier and investment sentiment continues to be positive across Central and Eastern Europe according to the RICS Commercial Property Monitor for Q4 2016. Hungary and the Czech Republic remain the most upbeat markets, with Bulgaria and Croatia also gaining momentum. In Romania the pace of growth seems to be slowing down, although sentiment and projections continue to be broadly positive.

Poland’s total industrial and logistics stock surpassed the 11 million sqm mark at year-end 2016. Leasing activity remained strong for another consecutive year, leading to record high take-up, with more than 3 million sqm being transacted. The largest leasing volumes were recorded in Warsaw’s suburbs and Upper Silesia, and – of the smaller markets – in Szczecin and Bydgoszcz-Toruń. Cushman & Wakefield presented is yearly review on Poland’s industrial market.

Office tenants can look forward to a new supply of administrative space that is going to be delivered to the Prague market in 2017 and 2018. Last´s year paradox, when the economy was booming and the market registered a robust demand for new office space, but the amount of new completions dropped to a historical low, is forecast to be cleared out in the months to come. Currently, there are 330 000 sqm of new offices under construction in Prague out of which approximately half (171 000 sqm) is expected to be delivered this year. JLL looked at the largest office submarkets of the Czech capital in detail.

2016 was a record-breaking year for the Polish investment market and had the best investment performance since the financial crisis in 2009. With over €4.5 billion transacted in 2016, Poland remains the stand out performer across the CEE region, CBRE reports in its latest in research. 

The Romanian retail market continued to expand in 2016 with total stock reaching 1.22 million sqm in Bucharest and 2.3 million sqm in regional cities. For 2017 no major retail project is scheduled for completion in the capital, while 130,000 sqm are expected to be delivered in regional cities. DTZ Echinox Romania published its retail reports for 2016.

Poland’s total retail stock stood at nearly 14 million sqm at year-end 2016. Shopping centres continue to dominate the market, accounting for 73% of the country’s stock, followed by retail warehouses (18%), retail parks (8%) and outlet centres (1%). Last year’s new supply totalled 460,600 sqm, of which more than three-fourths were delivered across shopping centres. Twenty two new retail schemes were opened in 2016: 15 shopping centres, the largest being Posnania in Poznań (99,000 sqm) and Galeria Metropolia in Gdańsk (34,000 sqm), two retail parks and five standalone retail warehouses. Extensions and redevelopments of 13 existing schemes provided 74,000 sqm of leasable space, making up 16% of the total annual supply. Cushman & Wakefield presented its latest report on Poland’s retail market.

Total commercial real estate investment across CEE (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) reached €4.4bn in Q4 2016, a 27% increase on Q4 2015. This took full year volumes for 2016 to just over €11bn, an 11% increase on 2015 (€9.9bn), bucking the wider trend across Europe and on the continent where volumes shrank year-on-year. Cushman & Wakefield Czech Republic predicts a further growth of the region.