Katarzyna Zawodna-Bijoch, President and CEO of Skanska’s commercial development business unit in CEE has talked to Property Forum about the changing role of offices, skyrocketing energy prices and the incoming supply gap in the Polish office market.

The area of former factories and industrial halls in Prague 9 will be transformed into a modern urban district. Skanska is now planning to invest more than CZK 1 billion (€41 million) in the Alfred apartment building there. The building, which is part of the second phase of the construction of the district of industrialist Emil Kolben, is expected to be completed in 2025, reports E15.cz.

The office market is going through a period of stagnation, recording demand values similar to those of 2021, while new deliveries amounted to 105,000 sqm by September 2022, compared to 154,000 sqm in the same period of last year, according to real estate consultancy JLL Romania.

Skanska Residential is planning to include rental housing in its multi-phase projects in the Czech Republic as an additional product to its standard offer. However, the company mainly wants to focus on building homes in Prague for long-term living. Property Forum talked to Petr Michálek, CEO of Skanska Residential.

Two years after the start of construction, Skanska has completed works on the P180 office building, located at the Wilanowska metro station. The building received an occupancy permit, which means that the Warsaw office market has gained an additional 32,000 sqm of office space. IT specialists from the international Netcompany moved into the newly commissioned office building, which offers the tenant 6,000 sqm of space.

Aurelia Luca, Executive Vice President Operations Hungary and Romania at Skanska spoke to Property Forum about the flexibility of office space amid the popularity of hybrid working and the ESG criteria that will dominate office leasing and investment activity in the coming years.

Property developer Skanska has named Anamaria Crețu and Tamara Guleryuz as Leasing & Asset Managers for the Romanian portfolio. The roles contribute to the growth of the business and the improvement of the experience offered to clients and occupiers of buildings.

Skanska has completed the superstructure of the Port7 project in Prague which will offer more than 35,800 sqm of office and retail space. After 16 months, construction of the building reached the top floor deploying 31,000 cubic metres of concrete and 4,100 tons of steel reinforcement.

Skanska will invest CZK 970 million in the first phase of the brownfield residential project Modřanský cukrovar. On the right bank of the river Vltava, 112 apartments and seven commercial premises within the area of 10,500 sqm will be built. After six phases of the project, there will be 797 housing units, Skanska announced on its website. 

According to the latest, fourth edition of a survey conducted by Zymetria (an analytical and research company) on behalf of Skanska's commercial development business unit, after two years of the coronavirus pandemic, 9 out of 10 Polish office employees believe that the traditional office is irreplaceable. Today, more than half of Poles work in a hybrid model – this translates to an almost double increase compared to May 2021. In addition, the hybrid is also the most preferred way of working – it is favoured by 70% of the respondents.