With the growth of the Bucharest office market to 2.3 million sqm, office buildings become more and more important in the recruitment and retention of employees. The new wave of employees is more demanding in terms of office life concepts and expects a building to offer, besides a modern working space, a community to belong to. According Colliers International Romania, in the coming years, property management services will influence the level of employee satisfaction.

H&M Romania has leased 1,000 square meters in Unirii View, a 73-meter tall office building in the centre of Bucharest. The fashion retailer will take up a superior floor within Unirii View.

M7 Real Estate, a pan-European real estate investor and specialist asset manager, has agreed on a number of transactions as part of its proactive asset management programme on behalf of Vector Parks. Vector Parks comprises a portfolio of industrial and office assets located in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Over the last six months, M7 has completed six new lettings and four renewals totalling over 20,500 sqm with predominantly anchor tenants.

Up to 500,000 sqm of office space was leased in 2017 by companies from the business services sector. The positive trend should continue in 2018. According to the estimates by ABSL, 50 new centres will likely open in the upcoming months, which will, in turn, lead to high demand for office space. JLL analysed the activity of companies from the business services sector in Poland in 2017.

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.

Business services companies remain core office tenants in Wrocław, setting new market trends and trying to attract top talent. Michał Grabikowski, Head of the Wrocław Office of Cresa Poland summarised the key strengths of Lower Silesia’s capital city.

Microsoft has launched a tender to consolidate its Bucharest offices in a new location. The company is looking for 20,000 sqm of modern office space and is willing to pay around €3 million a year for rent, zf.ro reports citing market sources.

Cresa, a tenant-only commercial real estate firm, has opened its second Polish office in the city of Wrocław. The new office is headed by Michał Grabikowski, who is also the Head of Tenant Representation, Office Department of Cresa Poland in Wrocław.

In line with the current accounting standards, commercial real estate leases and operating leases do not have be treated as long-term liabilities. They are very often held off-balance sheet or only partially disclosed as short-term liabilities. As a result, businesses, including the largest listed companies reporting in accord-ance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), are required solely to include upcoming operating lease instalments and rental payments in their balance sheets. This, however, will change as of 1 January 2019. Bolesław Kołodziejczyk, PhD, Head of Research & Advisory at Cresa Poland analysed the impacts of IFRS 16.

Tenants in 2017 are looking for a lot more than four walls and a couple of cubicles. Developers and the owners of older schemes will need to adapt to the changing needs of occupiers in order to stay in the race. Our panel of tenants, landlords, developers and advisors at CEE Property Forum 2017 talked about what makes an office attractive in 2017 and what it will take to secure new leases and keep existing tenants happy in the years to come.