The valuation department of Cushman & Wakefield Echinox has evaluated over 700 properties with a cumulative value of €4 billion in 2018, while estimating an increase of 25% of the valuation volume, potentially reaching the €5 billion threshold during the year.

Globalworth has completed new acquisitions of two buildings in Poland, Warsaw Trade Tower (WTT) in Warsaw and Rondo Business Park in Krakow, for c. €170 million. Including these recent additions, Globalworth’s Polish portfolio has grown to almost 500,000 sqm of GLA in office and mixed-use properties.

Amsterdam, Stockholm, Helsinki and Dublin are among the major cities featured in a new research report from Cushman & Wakefield into the coworking and flexible office sectors, which pinpoints future demand and the next likely growth hotspots across Europe.

The BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland team was joined at the beginning of March by Piotr Krawczyński who took up the position of Head of Capital Markets CEE. His responsibilities will include client acquisition and coordination of property purchase/sale transactions across Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, his scope of duties will also involve consultancy services in respect of property investment finance.

What is Warsaw residents' favourite shopping destination? Shopping centres. In this regard, the residents of Poland's capital differ from the residents of Madrid, Paris or Berlin, who prefer to visit stores located on their respective high streets. However, according to a new report by JLL, with the maturing shopping centre market, the popularity of high streets is increasing as well. As a consequence, high streets have a chance to come back into favour as alternative locations and diversify the expansion strategies of retailers.

Sylwia Pędzińska, Senior Partner at Colliers International and Head of the Workplace Innovation department, has been appointed head of a newly created Innovation & Knowledge department for Colliers’ Polish business. Dorota Osiecka will replace Sylwia as the new director of Workplace Innovation.

AFI Europe Romania will soon start works on the second phase of the €37 million AFI Tech Park Business Campus project in Bucharest.

JLL has provided space for 2 new branches of the international provider of co-working offices Spaces. In November this year, Spaces open in the low-energy building Nile House in Karlín, where they will occupy more than 3,500 sqm. One month later, they will take over 3,300 sqm in the SmíchOFF office building in Prague 5. At the same time, Spaces announced its first location in Hungary. The co-working operator will move into GTC White House in Budapest in Q4 2019. CBRE acted as adviser to the deal.

Local developer Biggeorge Property has unveiled plans for a new city centre development in Budapest’s Óbuda district. The 5 ha project would include 1400 apartments and 10,000 sqm of commercial space upon completion. Handover of the first phase with 257 apartments in three buildings is scheduled for 2010.

Penta Real Estate has sold the 80,000 sqm office component of the Waltrovka complex in Jinonice, Prague 5 to Munich-based real estate fund manager GLL Real Estate Partners (GLL), a member of Macquarie Group, acting together with LB Asset Management on behalf of South Korean investor Hanwha Investment & Securities in a transaction worth over €250 million.