Investors needed less than two days to subscribe for all F-series public bonds issued by Echo Investment. The total value of the tranche amounted to PLN 125 million. The offer was oversubscribed, therefore the placed orders will be proportionally reduced, according to the terms of the issue.

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.

The Romanian market has attracted strong interest from international investors in recent years. Solid economic growth, improving perception and the availability of quality investment products have all contributed to the €400 million transaction volume registered in 2017. Andrei Văcaru, Associate Director of Capital Markets at JLL Romania explained Property Forum why Romania is on the right track.

HB Reavis’ flagship development in Warsaw’s city centre, Varso, has been awarded a WELL Core & Shell Precertification by the International WELL Building Institute. Through the introduction of solutions aimed at improving employee wellbeing at the building design stage, Varso is WELL Core & Shell Precertified at the Gold level, and could be awarded WELL Core & Shell Certification following final performance verification upon completion in 2020.

The rapid growth of e-commerce will completely transform the retail market within the next few years. Shopping centres will need to adapt to changing consumer needs in order to stay in business but experts believe that many will not survive. Booming online sales, on the other hand, present a great opportunity for further growth in logistics. Members of the retail panel at CEE Property Forum, moderated by Andreas Ridder, Chairman CEE at CBRE, discussed the future of the business.

Skanska invests €27 million in the office project Praga Studios in Prague. The seven-floor building will offer a total leasable area of about 12,000 square meters. Construction has begun and the office building is scheduled for completion in Q2 2019.

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.

Through its subsidiary NEPI Rockcastle has acquired the Arena Plaza shopping centre in Budapest from Symmetry Arena Ingatlankezelő Kft. The aggregate purchase price paid for the transaction was €275 million, resulting in an acquisition yield of approximately 6.2%.

Up to 210,000 sqm of modern office space was leased in H1 2017 by companies from the business services sector - this accounts for 60% of overall demand for office space outside Warsaw. According to forecasts by ABSL, employment in business service centres in Poland will continue to grow. By 2020, the sector will likely employ approximately 300,000 specialists, further fuelling office take-up. As a consequence, smaller cities will be even more competitive to attract investors. JLL has conducted an analysis of the activity of tenants from the business services sector outside Warsaw in H1 2017.

Solid economic growth and further expansion on investment markets are expected for 2017 and 2018 in the CEE region with interest rates unlikely to increase until 2019. But even though the short term outlook is highly positive, investors and developers need to be prepared for future challenges. Nearly 400 people from more than 25 countries gathered in Vienna for the fifth CEE Property Forum, co-organised by Property Forum and RICS, to analyse the CEE property market from a global perspective.