Rebounding industrial production and easing inflation are helping the Slovak economy to avoid recession. In the industrial market, it is visible robust construction growth and demand surge. The office sector is resilient but vacant subleased spaces are increasing, while the rental rates are stable amid yield increases. Nevertheless, Slovakia's retail sector is facing challenging dynamics as market limitations amplify alongside a cautious expansion trend, largely due to geopolitical and economic uncertainty, Cushman & Wakefield reports in its Marketbeat Analysis for Q2 2023.

The mixed-use property development Liberty by Hungarian developer Wing has reached a major milestone. The office area in the south wing has received its use permit, and the first tenants have already moved in. At the same time, a sports store is now open on the ground floor.

According to a report published by Newmark Polska, occupier activity in Poland’s regional city office markets remains stable, but tenants are increasingly shifting their focus towards making efficient use of office space and looking for better quality offices.

The retail sector has been leading the investment activity in the first half of 2023 across CEE, having a share of 35% of the total volume of transactions that reached around €2.02 billion, according to a Colliers report.

There are more and more vacant office spaces on the regional markets in Poland. In Warsaw, despite the decline in demand, the availability of offices is getting smaller, says Walter Herz. 

Gross demand for office spaces in Bucharest hovered around 164,000 sqm in the first half of 2023, up by 22% compared to the same period of last year, while deliveries of new office buildings will remain on a downward trend by year-end, according to data from iO Partners. 

Globalworth has signed a contract to sell the Warta Tower office building in Warsaw to a company from the Cornerstone Investment Management platform. The value of the transaction has been set at over €63 million.

Ștefan Tudos, Vice President of Genesis Property, talked to Property Forum about the hybrid future of work and the way in which the company’s flagship YUNITY Park office campus in Bucharest is covering emerging demands coming from companies and employees on sustainability and work-life balance.

The Academia office building in downtown Budapest has undergone complete renovation and modernization. The building will offer 12,500 sqm of office space from the first week of August. The complex has obtained the WiredScore-Gold certification and soon it will boast additional certifications, such as BREEAM, WELL and Access4you.

One year after construction began, the rough construction of one of the future A1 office building in Prague's Rohan City project has been completed. Upon completion, the building will house the headquarters of Sekyra Group, the developer of the Rohan City project, among others. It is being built on a brownfield site on Rohanský island in Prague 8, which has been unused for many years.