AFI Europe set the cornerstone of AFI Brasov, the company’s third shopping mall in Romania and announced the advancement of construction works. AFI Brasov will include 200 shops and retail units with 80% of total space already leased. The first stage of construction includes a shopping center with a total gross leasable area of 45,000 sqm and one of the two Class A office towers that stretch over an area of 25,000 sqm GLA. The investment at this stage is of over €120 million. The company estimates that the delivery date of the project is Q1 2019.

Panattoni Europe announced the sale of Panattoni Park Warszawa–Konotopa to MEP Industrial Centre Warsaw, owned by M&G European Property Holding Company. The multi-tenant logistics centre comprises two buildings totalling close to 50,000 sqm and is fully leased. After the sales transaction is completed, Panattoni Europe will stay on as the facility manager.

By the end of H2 2017 space under construction by Echo Investment increased to over 1 million sqm, from 677,000 sqm at the end of 2016. According to its latest financial report, the company is moving forward with a number of residential, office and retail developments.

Tenant demand for modern logistics and manufacturing space in Poland is growing at a rapid pace. In H1 2017, warehouse supply totalled 707,000 sqm while take-up hit a record high of 1,786,000 sqm, as revealed in Cushman & Wakefield’s latest report.

The office markets of Central European capitals are growing dynamically: the number of new leases is on the rise, vacancy rates have hit record lows in several cities and demand for large office space is also growing. In light of all this it is no surprise that development activity is also heating up on the most popular markets of the region. We asked three major office developers to tell us which city in the region offers the most attractive development opportunities, how tenants’ requirements are changing and what makes Central European capitals different.

In H1 2017, the Wrocław office market recorded demand totalling nearly 92,000 sqm, mostly as a consequence of the high level of activity among tenants from the business services sector. JLL summarised the first half of 2017 on Wrocław's office market.

JSE listed Echo Polska Properties (EPP) released its interim results for the six-month period ended June 2017. During the period EPP successfully concluded €262 million in acquisitions, boosting the portfolio to €1.7 billion.

Knight Frank has been appointed sole agent of the Galeria Ostrowiec shopping mall. Experts from the company’s Retail Agency will diversify the offer of the shopping mall, owned by First Property Group.

The Nowy Świat 2.0 office building in Warsaw has been recognized with an LEED Gold ecological certificate. Experts from JLL supported investor Centrum Bankowo-Finansowe “Nowy Świat” S.A. in obtaining the certificate.

Free office space is dwindling in the Czech Republic. The office vacancy rate in Brno, as well as in Prague, has slipped below 10%. Both cities experience the lowest rate of vacant offices in the last decade. Brno recorded a sharp decline by 2.4 percentage points in H1 2017, while in the capital demand totalled 153,500 sqm in Q2 2017, up 45% on the previous quarter and 36.9% year-on-year. Overall, more than 370 deals were closed in Prague in H1 2017, many of which were pre-leases. In contrast, in Brno there was an 8% drop in lettings compared to H2 2016.