As we are nearing the end of the cycle and investors are looking to diversify their portfolios, student housing’s counter-cyclical nature is becoming increasingly attractive. Samuel Vetrak, CEO of Bonard, talked to Property Forum about recent developments on the European student housing market. Samuel will also chair a panel discussion on student housing at the upcoming CEE Property Forum 2019 in Vienna.

Labour shortage and rising costs in construction are problems developers in CEE have had to learn to live with over the past years. Dr. Zoltán Nádasdy MRICS, Partner, Head of CEE Real Estate Investments Group at Noerr talked to Property Forum about the legal challenges investors and developers face on the Hungarian, Romanian and Polish markets.

The retail sector has been heavily affected by the changes brought on by technology. Solutions such as indoor localization provide limitless opportunities for retailers wanting to stay ahead of the competition. Oren Rosen, Co-Founder of Israeli startup Infuse Location Ltd talked to Property Forum about the changing shopping experience.

Although the results of this year’s first quarter have been weaker than expected on the CEE investment market, this does not automatically mean than a slowdown has started. Andy Thompson MRICS, Head of Investment Czech Republic & Slovakia at Colliers International shared his market expectations with Property Forum.

One of the leading investment advisors of the region is seeing increased activity in Slovakia and Romania and expects further yield compression on these markets. Mike Atwell, Head of Capital Markets CEE and Czech Republic at JLL shared his thoughts on new investments, changing market trends and technology.

The Czech property investment market continues to post solid figures in an environment that is increasingly less bullish. One of the leading local players believes that a downturn of the current property cycle will eventually come from a major outside macro shock and before this happens, the Czech commercial property sector will keep showing positive figures. Tomáš Jandík, CFA, MRICS, REICO’s Chief Investment Officer shared his market expectations with Property Forum.

It is inevitable that the amount of capital invested in PropTech will increase in 2019 compared to the previous year. As property markets around the world are becoming more educated there is also more international cooperation on the horizon. James Dearsley and Eddie Holmes, the co-founders of global proptech platform Unissu.com talked to Property Forum about the global status of proptech in 2019 and the aims of their new venture.

Real estate investors tend to keep doing things in exactly the way as they did in the year before. For a long time this worked out well, but to stay in the race, one must make use of the data available. Bouke-Pieter van Dijk, Director of Retail Atlas Schweiz and one of the speakers of the upcoming RICS European Retail Conference talked to Property Forum about his company.

On 4 December 2018, Balkans Property Forum 2018, a conference and networking event for real estate professionals from all over Southeastern Europe will be held in Belgrade. Over 100 guests will come together in the Serbian capital to discuss key issues and explore the latest trends influencing the future of the real estate industry. Key speaker of the event, co-organized by Property Forum and RICS, answered questions about the local real estate market.

With reduced tolerance for risk in property acquisitions, the use of title insurance has increased. Fifteen years after its introduction, it continues to play a growing role in the CEE real estate market. Jean-Bernard Wurm, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Secure Legal Title, London talked to Property Forum about the title insurance market in CEE.