Marian Herman has become the new Chief Executive of HB Reavis Group with immediate effect. Marian moves into the role from his position as Group Chief Financial Officer and Board Member of HB Reavis. He has been with the company for more than eight years.

Market players are highly optimistic about the future of CEE investments, but finding the right quality product can be a tough challenge. Our summary of Bratislava Property Forum 2018, co-organised by Property Forum and RICS.

The year 2017 saw the greatest amount of industrial space built in Europe in its history – more than 3.7 million sqm. This represents a 68% increase over 2016 and a 55% increase over the existing record dating back to 2007 (an additional 1.2 million sqm). The total industrial space in the region has increased by 17% as a result. Such are the results of a survey conducted by Cushman & Wakefield, a company that has been monitoring the industrial property market in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania on a long-term basis.

2017 was not the strongest year for Slovakia’s investment market but if all goes well we might see the previous record of €850 million being broken this year. Peter Nitschneider, Country Manager for Slovakia at JLL shared his expectations for the Slovak property investment market.

Modern technology has revolutionised the way we work and significantly altered the leasing process. Andrej Leontiev LL.M., Partner at Taylor Wessing analysed current trends on Bratislava’s office market from a legal perspective.

According to the latest analysis prepared by the Capital Markets team Cushman & Wakefield, investment volumes in Central and Eastern Europe reached nearly €13 billion in 2017. All CEE countries grew at a similar rate and maintained their share of the overall regional volume. Despite political risk perceptions, Poland grew most rapidly at 9% y-o-y from approx. €4.6 billion to €5 billion, which was the highest result recorded in the last 10 years. 2018 has already seen the benefit of deals that slipped from late 2017 with the investment volume in Q1 2018 likely to exceed €3 billion.

Owner Unibail-Rodamco plans to extend the Aupark shopping centre in Bratislava by 7,000 sqm. According to etrendk.sk, the developer has already filed documentation for a construction permit.

2017 was a great year for the CEE property market and the scene is set for 2018 to be even better. However, there are always risks to be wary of. Andreas Ridder, Chairman CEE at CBRE revealed Property Forum his expectations for the CEE investment market in 2018.

At ca. €12.98 billion, 2017 recorded a 3.3% increase over 2016 (€12.56 billion) and, for the second year running, set a new record transaction volume for the CEE region. JLL has registered continued appetite from investors for the full range of assets across the entire region.

The total investment volume in Slovakia for 2017 was recorded at just under €525 million, with more than two thirds being closed in the second half of the year. The volume is below JLL‘s €600 million estimation as several deals did not close before the year end and will slip into 2018.