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Brno has changed over the past two decades. A total of 635,900 sqm of office space currently exists in the city thanks to the strong growth of companies from the business and IT services and R&D sectors. Brno Spielberg, along with the city centre around Vlněná Street, has become home to companies that create advanced technologies and innovations for global businesses. The city is preparing to expand this space – it will soon add almost 100,000 sqm to the currently unoccupied 70,900 sqm of modern office space, says Colliers in its latest report.

The retail property investment market sector in Poland is thriving, thanks to the stable growth of retail parks (above 5,000 sqm GLA) and convenience retail (retail parks under 5,000 sqm GLA) schemes. Since 2016, 160 assets of this type have been finalized, says Avison Young Poland.

The last two years marked steep growth for the Slovak developer Corwin. With their four new acquisitions, they have grown to be the largest developer in Ljubljana and have sold their flagship project Blumental as one of the largest transactions of the year in Bratislava. In 2022, Corwin also published its first sustainability report.

Despite the still-uncertain geopolitical situation over Poland's southeastern border, the performance of the warehousing sector in the investment and leasing markets gives grounds for optimism. Demand in Q3 2022 amounted to 1.6 million sqm (+11% y/y), indicating that companies are still interested in acquiring new space for development. On the supply side, on the other hand, the new policy of investment financing by banks in the coming quarters will bring the announced cooling down in the construction of new projects. This trend may particularly affect speculatively built warehouses, which at the end of September 2022 accounted for about 52% of the 4 million sqm of space currently under construction. Axi Immo presented data summarizing Q3 2022 in the industrial and logistics market.

In its latest study on the CEE hotel market, hotel real estate expert Christie & Co sheds light on how the capital cities of Prague, Bratislava and Budapest developed during the Covid-19 pandemic and which of the three cities emerged the strongest from the crisis.

Real estate investors and developers active in Romania argue that inflation, the increasing financing costs, the geopolitical situation and also the increasing construction costs are the main macroeconomic factors which may impact the Romanian real estate market, as these factors are expected to put pressure both on demand and on the rental levels. However, despite all the above-mentioned issues, investors remain positive and their expansion plans in Romania are mostly intact, according to the first edition of Cushman & Wakefield Echinox's “Real Estate Investors Sentiment Barometer”.

The EECFA 2022 Winter Construction Forecast Report has been released and yet another downward revision characterizes the forecast for both Southeast Europe and Eastern Europe. Southeast Europe could see shrinkage on the horizon. This, however, comes after a great period of construction between 2016 and 2021, so the market is foreseen to come down from a peak level. In this respect, the 3% decline until 2024 is no drama, in EECFA’s view. The drama is in East Europe where the peak was reached in 2018 and the market was around 10% below that peak level even before the Ukraine war began. Since then, EECFA has paused issuing forecasts in Ukraine and a status report has been prepared. Without Ukraine, the region is expected to reach its bottom in 2023.

Even though the increase in the amount of new office space in Prague in Q3 2022 was the lowest so far this year and no new construction even began, according to Colliers, there is no need to worry about a lack of offices. In the coming months, developers plan to start speculative construction of approximately 126,600 sqm in new space. Despite original assumptions, the office vacancy rate in Prague, unlike in neighbouring markets, is decreasing and has reached 8.1%. Gross realised demand for 137,700 sqm was the highest level so far in 2022, reported Colliers in their regular quarterly market survey.

The Czech Republic is among the top ten manufacturing destinations worldwide and has the third lowest risk profile. In a ranking of countries with the best conditions for the manufacturing sector, Czechia stands in eighth place and remains at the top of the list of countries whose manufacturing sector is thriving. Cushman & Wakefield reports.

Savills has presented a preliminary summary of 2022 and predicted key trends for the coming months. The commercial property market in Poland is facing uncertainty and rising prices but remains underpinned by strong fundamentals, which bodes well for the future, reveals Savills.