Barbora Dermekova MRICS, Valuer at JLL became the first recipient of the Chris Bennett Memorial Prize. The award was handed out at the Portfolio Property Investment Forum conference in Budapest, where the activity of several big players of the Hungarian property market was also acknowledged.

A fear of rising vacancies caused by overdevelopment has long been in the centre of news regarding the Warsaw office market. Ewelina Kauzna MRICS, Director of the Office Agency, Landlord Representation at Colliers International in Poland talked to us about what is happening in the capital and in other Polish cities.

More than 100 people attended Portfolio’s first property investment conference in London, co-organised by RICS. Speakers at the CEE Property Investment Briefing included Europe’s biggest investors. The exclusive half-day conference in London focused on CEE markets such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Poland.

European commercial real estate markets saw further yield contraction in Q3 2015 across all property sectors, reflecting growing investor demand and very low bond yields, according to the EMEA Prime Rents and Yields survey from global property advisor CBRE. Across the total of 162 sector/city combinations throughout the EMEA region, 71 saw prime yields moving lower and none saw any increase over the quarter.

The RICS Commercial Property Monitor for Q3 2015 showed that expectations for commercial property markets in Central and Eastern European countries have improved remarkably. Both, the Occupier Sentiment Index and the Investment Sentiment Index stands in positive territory across all sectors and projections for the future also paint a positive picture.

Immofinanz has signed a contract with Blackstone for the sale of its entire logistics portfolio. The transaction covers all 36 logistics standing investments with approx. one million sqm of rentable space, which are located for the most part in Germany (24 properties) as well as in Hungary (5), Romania (3), Poland (2), Slovakia (1) and Russia (1). Blackstone will also purchase three development projects with approx. 65,000 sqm currently under construction in Hamburg (DE), Bucharest and Ploiesti (RO), which will be completed by Immofinanz, as well as land reserves. Blackstone will integrate all the assets into Logicor, its European logistics platform.

Both the development and take-up of industrial parks in Central Europe is continuing and slightly accelerating in comparison with last year, according to research from Cushman & Wakefield. The appetite for investing in commercial properties is also increasing, with a shortage on the supply side making buyers willing to pay more. This trend is most obvious for logistic and production facilities. Cushman & Wakefield’s report covers Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

Global commercial real estate (CRE) investment reached US$407 billion in H1 2015, the strongest first half to a year since 2007, and up 14 per cent year-over-year, according to the latest research from global property advisor CBRE Group, Inc.

Last month, Cushman & Wakefield and DTZ merged under the Cushman & Wakefield brand. Jonathan Hallett (Managing Partner, Central Europe) and Gergely Pados (Managing Director, Hungary) talked to us about the merger, Cushman & Wakefield’s plans and the future of the Hungarian property market.

Corporate real estate (CRE) investment within Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) increased in Q3 by 14%, to a record €2.297 billion, with total yearly volume up 6% according to the most recent report on CEE property investment from CBRE.