Negotiators of the Council and the European Parliament reached an agreement aimed at taxing imports based on the greenhouse gas emissions needed to make the products, which would extensively cover the imports of construction materials. 

The last two years marked steep growth for the Slovak developer Corwin. With their four new acquisitions, they have grown to be the largest developer in Ljubljana and have sold their flagship project Blumental as one of the largest transactions of the year in Bratislava. In 2022, Corwin also published its first sustainability report.

Real estate investors and developers active in Romania argue that inflation, the increasing financing costs, the geopolitical situation and also the increasing construction costs are the main macroeconomic factors which may impact the Romanian real estate market, as these factors are expected to put pressure both on demand and on the rental levels. However, despite all the above-mentioned issues, investors remain positive and their expansion plans in Romania are mostly intact, according to the first edition of Cushman & Wakefield Echinox's “Real Estate Investors Sentiment Barometer”.

The EECFA 2022 Winter Construction Forecast Report has been released and yet another downward revision characterizes the forecast for both Southeast Europe and Eastern Europe. Southeast Europe could see shrinkage on the horizon. This, however, comes after a great period of construction between 2016 and 2021, so the market is foreseen to come down from a peak level. In this respect, the 3% decline until 2024 is no drama, in EECFA’s view. The drama is in East Europe where the peak was reached in 2018 and the market was around 10% below that peak level even before the Ukraine war began. Since then, EECFA has paused issuing forecasts in Ukraine and a status report has been prepared. Without Ukraine, the region is expected to reach its bottom in 2023.

The Czech Republic is among the top ten manufacturing destinations worldwide and has the third lowest risk profile. In a ranking of countries with the best conditions for the manufacturing sector, Czechia stands in eighth place and remains at the top of the list of countries whose manufacturing sector is thriving. Cushman & Wakefield reports.

Savills has presented a preliminary summary of 2022 and predicted key trends for the coming months. The commercial property market in Poland is facing uncertainty and rising prices but remains underpinned by strong fundamentals, which bodes well for the future, reveals Savills.

Handing over 1,650 apartments for sale and rent to customers, maintaining 100% of the lease level in all completed Resi4Rent buildings, increasing the turnover of Libero in Katowice and Galeria Młociny in Warsaw – this is a summary of the Echo-Archicom Group's operating activities in three quarters of 2022. During this time, the Group generated PLN 125 million in net profit.

Residential developers in Poland are aware of the importance of ESG but they feel that their customers are often still focused on the price only. The participants of the ESG panel of Living Investment Forum 2022, held by Property Forum in Warsaw recently, agreed that the legal and financial pressure put on the construction industry may not be enough and there is still a lot to be done in terms of education.

Romania is turning into a hub for logistics and the additional investment in infrastructure will increase the country’s industrial stock going forward, concluded speakers of the logistics panel of SEE Property Forum 2022, held in Bucharest.

Investment into the world’s office markets fell sharply in Q3 2022, however, there is plenty of capital still circulating poised to target the best assets, as well as any areas of discount, as debt-backed buyers withdraw and others pause decision-making. The Czech market is copying the global market, but the number of opportunities for buyers to source a ‘bargain’ is limited, says Savills in its latest Capital Markets Quarterly report.