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Property Forum is excited to announce the winners of its annual SEE Property Forum Awards for 2023. The winners of each category were selected from our shortlist by the jury committee, comprising the leading players of the Romanian real estate industry. The awards, celebrating the best projects, most impactful transactions and most inspiring personalities of the Romanian market, were presented at our awards gala in Bucharest last night, part of the annual SEE Property Forum conference.

The modern industrial stock reached almost 11.5 million sqm, as nearly 183,000 sqm of new space was delivered to the Czech market in Q3 2023. Demand for industrial space slowed down in Q3 2023 reaching only 181,700 sqm. Speculative development slightly increased to 41% of the over 1.4 million sqm currently under construction, continuing the trend of the previous three quarters. The vacancy rate decreased by 22 basis points compared to the previous quarter, and remained low at 1.5% Prague’s average highest achievable rent has remained stable, reaching around €7.50-7.70 per sqm per month, the Industrial Research Forum (IRF) reports. 

Bratislava's residential new building market continued in stagnation during the period of Q3 2023. Sales remained at the same low level as in the previous two quarters, meaning fewer than 200 apartments were sold. The supply of new apartments increased only slightly, with a similarly slow rise in price to €5,100/sqm incl. VAT. The price increase is due to the arrival of new apartments in the higher housing segment while the average price of existing projects remains unchanged, reported analysts from Bencont Investments.

Most retailers want to attract customers in-store through omnichannel, while e-commerce is not meeting the expectations of food retailers, concluded speakers in the rediscovering retail panel of CEE Property Forum 2023, held in Vienna last month.

Investors' interest in the construction of retail parks in Serbia has not been declining for several years now. Investors are mostly focused on building new facilities in secondary and tertiary locations. As much as 14% of the total offer of retail parks in Serbia is located in the region of central Serbia. The Šumadija region is attracting more and more attention, so the company Peštan announced the opening of a new retail park in 2025 - Arandjelovac Retail Park. 

According to the State Employment Service, as of September 1, 2023, the number of vacancies in the construction industry exceeded the number of registered unemployed. Representatives of the largest developers in the capital speak of a shortage of workers. Olga Solovei summarised what is happening in the labour market in the construction sector of Ukraine in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

According to the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections held in Poland on Sunday, after 2 terms and 8 years of independent rule, Prawo i Spawiedliwość (Law and Justice) will have to hand over power to the opposition. This is certainly good news for foreign investors, who may have feared worsening chaos in law and taxation and, in the longer term, Poland's potential exit from the structures of the European Union.

The condition of the housing markets in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia remains good, but high interest rates have reduced the availability of mortgages, which has affected the demand for flats. Poland has broken out of this pattern, where, despite high financing costs, developers are breaking sales records. However, all these countries have one thing in common - the low activity of players in the PRS market, whose offer could be an effective response to the low creditworthiness of buyers. These are just some of the conclusions reached by the participants of the residential panel at CEE Property Forum 2023, which was organised in Vienna in September.

Romania Green Building Council (RoGBC), together with the Association for Promoting Energy Efficiency in Buildings (ROENEF), have announced the launch of the Green Gala Awards 2023, the event that rewards excellence in the field of sustainability of the built environment. The competition aims to award projects implemented as a result of innovative actions and initiatives that add value to both the community and the environment.

SEE is still a land of opportunities but things go too slowly. The size of a single country is too small for international institutional investors who prefer to buy large portfolios rather than individual assets. However, sizeable local players were optimistic about the change in foreign investors’ attitudes at the panel devoted to the investment market in this region at CEE Property Forum 2023 in Vienna.