The investment volume achieved in 2016 totalled almost €1.2 billion with 46 transactions recorded in core CEE hotel investment markets. In comparison, 2015 reached just over €700 million with 45 transactions. Austria was the star performer with almost €800 million transacted, which made up 67% of the total investment volume. In other CEE markets volume was lower than in 2015 with a particular decline in Poland which more than halved in volume. The Czech Republic accounted for 18% of total CEE investment share; most of the investment took place in Prague which saw 7 transactions including the Hilton Old Town, Park Hotel and Chopin Hotel.

According to Christie & Co's recent hotel market snapshot, Bucharest is an emerging market for hotel investments. While the city's hotel market may yet to fully recover from the financial crisis, it has made tremendous progress in recent years, reporting upward trends in key performance indicators and growing investor interest.

2017 will deliver only 17,000 sqm of new space to the Brno office market. When considering the size of the market, together with Budapest, this is the lowest increment of new offices in Central and Eastern Europe – 3.3%. A lack of new office space may cause rental prices to increase. These figures are based on an analysis made by Cushman & Wakefield, which compares the office markets across 12 cities in Central Europe.

Even though all figures available as well as market sentiment point to further growth on the Hungarian commercial property market, its players still keep looking over their shoulders for potential threats to this growth. According to the speakers of the Portfolio - RICS Valuation and Investment 2017 conference, global politics and potentially rising interest rates pose the biggest threat for CEE. We report from Budapest. 

At end-2016, Poland’s total stock of modern shopping centres, including retail parks and outlet centres, reached 11.2 million sqm of GLA across 479 retail schemes. The Polish Retail Research Forum (PRRF) has summarized the retail market in Poland in H2 2016. 

The supply of office space in Warsaw at the end of last year exceeded 5.18 million sqm after the stock increased by 410,000 sqm. BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts signal that 650,000 sqm of office space under construction and more than 1,000,000 sqm of additional pipeline projects constitute a vital argument for tenants either searching for new locations or planning to renegotiate their leases.

900,000 sqm of office space was delivered to market in Poland in 2016 – the market's best ever result. Furthermore, demand was 1.34 million sqm. Kraków and Wrocław remain the leaders among office markets outside Warsaw, while an excellent result was recorded by Łódź.JLL summarised 2016 on the office market in both Warsaw and the other eight major cities in Poland.

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.