The Polish star is shining brightly on the European map of private student housing investments with rising rents on the horizon, said speakers during a discussion panel at Living Investment Forum 2021 in Warsaw, moderated by Martin Varga, Head of Real Estate Business Development at Bonard.

VGP, a European provider of high-quality logistics and semi-industrial real estate, published a trading update for the first ten months of 2021.

Analysis of 44 key office markets in EMEA showed a 155,000 sqm increase in the total amount of flex workspace, according to Colliers. This increase equates to 25,000 extra desks. Contributing to this increase was the addition of 285,000 sqm of newly opened space, but this was offset by 130,000 sqm of space that closed and a further 23,000 sqm that was abandoned. However, nearly a third of the space that closed was due to WeWork streamlining its business in key European locations such as Barcelona, Copenhagen, London and Oslo.

Home prices in Hungary have increased further, with provincial cities showing an outstanding price rise and Budapest also becoming more expensive following a year of stagnation, the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) said in its latest Housing Market Report. The price gap between Budapest and county seats has decreased in 2021. On a national average, housing prices rose 13.3% year on year in Q2, including a 9.1% rise in Budapest and an 18.2% increase outside the capital.

The European Central Bank has highlighted growing vulnerabilities in housing markets and stretched financial asset valuations in its Financial Stability Review for November 2021. The ECB has also warned of an increased likelihood of a correction in both residential and commercial real estate markets.

CTP reported a 92% rise in profit for the first nine months of 2021 to €317.8 million, compared with €165.8 million for the same period of 2020. The company’s strong performance was driven by solid ongoing leasing take up, rental growth and record development valuations from accelerating yield compression in CTP’s core CEE portfolio. The robust financial results are manifested in adjusted EPRA earnings per share year-to-date increasing to €0.38 in 2021 as compared with €0.29 for the same period in 2020. The company has also invested significantly this year in boosting its talent base, attracting new people into senior management roles in country teams and across group functions.

After a significant expansion in Q2 2021, the value of started construction works in the Hungarian construction industry marked a major drop between July and September. Yet overall, the Activity Start indicator remained high for Q3 2021 due to the exceptionally good second quarter, according to the EBI Construction Activity Report.

The results after the first three quarters of 2021 are showing an upward trend with all the main parameters above the comparable for 2020. GTC published its Q1-Q3 2021 results.

The rising prices of construction materials and energy, the increasing cost of land for new construction, a lack of crucial components to ensure continuous production and workforce shortages are all afflicting the industrial sector in the Czech Republic. One solution in regard to the availability of industrial real estate would seem to be the optimising of operations and more frequent investment by many companies into the automation of routine activities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many widespread changes in the booming Polish residential market. Demand for larger, greener apartments and the need to amend real estate law are only a few of them, said speakers during the discussion panel of Living Investment Forum 2021, Property Forum's annual event in Warsaw.