Reconstruction works on the former HQ of the Budapest Stock Exchange and the Hungarian Television are planned to start at the beginning of 2018 with a budget of €38 million. The 100-year-old building will be reborn as Exchange Palace, an office building with approximately 31,700 sqm of GLA:

Fenced-off construction sites, scaffold-enfolded buildings and grandiose developments – often only in plans – have become characteristic of the Budapest property market. Just four years after the deepest point of the recession, there is hardly any indication of those hard times left. The upwards trend exists not only on the residential market, but also on the office market, which impacts the majority of companies and employees. The largest investors adapted to the renewed demand and began building massive numbers of office buildings, and entire new areas of the city are being born.

The construction of a new Class A office building was announced in Debrecen. The 22,000 sqm office building will be the largest office building in Eastern Hungary. The building, set to be completed in Q3 2018, is designed by Bord Architect Studio. Office leasing, green certification and project consultation will be provided by the Hungarian office of Colliers International.

After acquiring the Campona and Pólus shopping centres in Budapest, CPI Property Group has again entrusted CBRE to manage its new properties. CBRE has also been selected as the exclusive leasing agency for the two malls.

According to CBRE, it is very likely that business deals in the Hungarian investment property market in 2017 will reach last year’s €1.54 billion (HUF480 billion) turnover.

Tenant representation is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon on the office markets of Central Europe, which is without a doubt a sign of a healthy, growing and more educated market. Their activity, however, often raises ethical questions as it’s still often unclear who pays for their services. Conflict of interest in tenant representation has been one of the key topics of two regional events: the Property Forum - RICS Prague Property Summit 2017 and the latest RICS Hungary Tea & Talk in Budapest.

M7 Real Estate has acquired a further circa. €20 million of assets in Budapest, on behalf of its first Central European fund for third party investors, M7 CEREF I. This follows the Fund completing its final close, reaching its target raise of €60 million of investor capital in April 2017, as well as the agreement of a €68.5 million senior debt facility with Starwood European Real Estate Finance.  

Futureal has sold its Sziget Center shopping mall in Hungary to OTP Property Investment Fund as part of the deal that also saw the purchase of the Skypark office building. After a successful repositioning, the 23,600 sqm center located on the outskirts of Budapest has managed to lure high-profile tenants and tripled its lease income over the last two and a half years.

The Váci Road office corridor, the central business district (CBD) and the inner quarters of Pest are the most significant office locations in Budapest. The Budapest office of CBRE has synchronized its office market database with the metro lines and stations to highlight the current status of the city’s office market.

Smart buildings and smart infrastructure are essential parts of a liveable, sustainable, future-proof and truly smart city, something that population centres all over the world aspire to be. Things have started going in the right direction but the Hungarian capital still has a long way to go before it can establish itself as a smart city. The vision of Budapest as smart city, officially approved by the City Council, was presented at the latest Green Talk, organised by RICS and the Hungary Green Building Council (HuGBC).