Property Forum published the results of its investment market sentiment survey at CEE Property Forum 2023 in Vienna yesterday. The results, providing an overview of market expectations across the region, are now available online.

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In March-April 2023, the Ukrainian Real Estate Club conducted a survey of almost 100 representatives of Ukrainian companies that continue to operate in the market and do business during the war. Of course, all market participants, regardless of their region of operation, felt the negative economic consequences. Despite this, the market is rather optimistic and proactive, as evidenced by the survey results, Olga Solovei (URE Club) reports for Property Forum.

On the occasion of Property Forum’s Living Investment Forum 2023 and under the umbrella of the RICS CEE residential working group, an online survey was conducted among large residential developers and management companies from Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania with help from industry organisations and RICS professional network to get insight on what importance ESG considerations play in the residential sector in the CEE region. In the survey, 80% of respondents claimed that ESG is an important factor in their business decisions at the “strategy level”.

As for the whole of 2022, the annual new supply of office space represents approximately 75,400 sqm. Although the annual supply of newly-completed space increased by 34% year-on-year, total volume was again below the long-term average of approximately 130,000 sqm per year. 2023 is expected to bring about some changes and more extensive construction. This means the Prague office market should grow to the 4 million sqm mark by 2025. Also at the close of 2022, several consecutive quarters of rent price growth came to a halt. These findings come from a survey by Colliers.

The vacancy rate of the Prague Office market has not changed in Q2 2022 and remained at the same value as in the previous quarter. Nevertheless, the rents and service fees continue to rise and the volume of net take-up is the highest since the end of 2019, says Colliers.

The footfall in Czech regional shopping centres remained almost unchanged despite the previous years of the pandemic and all the lockdowns. The turnover and the average basket increased, and the vacancy is stable. However, due to the 18-week lockdown, the year 2021 fell behind 2019 by about 15%. The biggest concern now comes from the inflation and spending cuts reported by CBRE in its regular Shopping Centre Index analysis together with the results of two surveys on customer behaviour and expected plans of retailers.

Czechs are still afraid of cooperative housing. It is the preferred form of ownership for only 3% of those who plan to buy a flat or house, while 13% do not even consider it when buying a property. However, due to the rise in mortgage rates and property prices, cooperative housing is more affordable and thus 22% of respondents have recently improved their opinion on it, according to a survey by Komerční banka and Modrá pyramida, a building society.

As technology has taken an increasingly important strategic role in the evolution and development of real estate, the challenges facing the people leading that innovation charge are becoming apparent.

As Romania has eliminated all pandemic restrictions earlier this week, companies plan to increase the number of employees returning to the office in the near future.