As of summer 2022, leasing activity in the Kyiv office market was near a standstill and primarily driven by office optimization, as well as lease renewals and renegotiations of existing leases, according to the latest research of CBRE Ukraine. Whereas, as of the beginning of June, we observed a slight recovery in the level of office occupancy by employees who continued to work or who returned to Kyiv. Thus, typical office attendance among corporate occupiers was ca. 10% with many tenants in IT, high tech & telecommunications, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, agriculture, FMCG and industrial sectors planning to increase occupancy to 15%.

During five months of war in Ukraine, millions of square meters of housing, production facilities, and infrastructure were destroyed. To speed up the recovery, Ukrainian legislation governing urban planning was simplified. Alexandra Fedotova, Partner, Attorney and Head of Ader Haber's real estate and construction practice and the Board Member of the Charity Fund Housing For IDP, reviewed the changes in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

Silviu Stratulat, Managing Partner, Stratulat Albulescu spoke to Property Forum about the impact of the crisis in Ukraine on the CEE real estate market, but also about the bank financing environment for developments amid rising interest rates. The law firm is planning to boost the logistics segment in its portfolio and expand with a new office in Moldova.

The Ukrainian retail industry together with the rest of the country is going through one of the most alarming stages in its history. Shopping malls are increasingly becoming targets for enemy fire. It is difficult to estimate the financial losses caused by the Russian army as the situation is constantly changing. According to the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centres (UCSC) the losses incurred by the shopping mall industry as a result of the aggression amount to $9.8 billion. This calculation includes direct and indirect losses, writes Katy Klyueva in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

Currently, the primary residential real estate market in Ukraine is experiencing an increase in the cost of construction as the cost of materials and labour have increased several times. A large part of domestic producers of building materials cannot work because they have suffered losses of production capacity. Import substitution, which should fill the shortage of materials, is often not a solution because of the high costs and logistics problems. Iryna Nastych summarised the situation in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

Małgorzata Cieślak-Belgy, Chief Investment Officer at MNK Partners talked to Property Forum about the current attractiveness of Polish the property market among investors and the growing popularity of ESG-compliant buildings.

Marcin Krasoń, a residential property expert at Obido.pl and Otodom.pl talked to Property Forum about the incoming slowdown in the residential market in Poland, the development of the PRS sector and the effects of rising inflation.

The logistic real estate market of Ukraine has been seriously damaged during the military aggression on the part of the Russian Federation. Warehouses are subjected to targeted attacks, as they are regarded by the aggressor as strategic objects, providing logistics, delivery of food and essential goods. On the territory of the Kyiv region, warehouse and logistics complexes with a total area of about 382,000 square meters were destroyed, writes Iryna Nastych summarised the situation in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

Monika Bronicka, Director and Head of Valuation and Advisory at Avison Young talked to Property Forum about the current challenges to the valuation of properties under rapidly-changing market conditions in Poland.

It's been a good, strong start to 2022 in Poland's office market, which offers hope that a long-awaited boom in demand is coming after a market slump. Companies have adapted to the new working conditions, and due to the easing of restrictions related to the covid-19 pandemic, they have launched a campaign to encourage employees back into offices. On the other hand, Warsaw and the eight largest regional markets, i.e., Kraków, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, and Lublin, may face a slowdown in new supply in the coming months. AXI IMMO looks at the current trends after Q1 2022 in the office market and analyses what will influence its development in the following months of the year.