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The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, has approved an amendment to the building law drafted by Regional Development Minister Klára Dostálová that aims to accelerate approvals on large construction projects. Now the law will be submitted to the Senate for consideration. If approved, it should come into force on July 1, 2023.

The Independent Committee of the Globalworth Board has published its response circular in connection with the unsolicited cash offer by CPI Property Group S.A. and Aroundtown SA at €7.00 per Globalworth share. The Independent Committee continues to believe that the offer significantly undervalues Globalworth, its assets and its prospects.

Supported by sustained portfolio growth in 2020 and the completion of profitable property sales and project pre-letting in Q1 2021, CA Immo is starting 2021 with a positive first quarterly result. All key financial figures were increased compared to the previous year, and the value of property assets rose to €5.7 billion. A sustainable result (FFO I) of at least €128 million is expected for 2021, and FFO I of at least €140 million for the post-pandemic financial year 2022.

According to Savills, the development pipeline for the Czech industrial market reached the highest level in history in Q1 2021. There were 47 industrial buildings in various stages of construction with a total rentable area of 734,200 sqm across the country. Speculative projects represented 36% of this construction pipeline, which was well below the 10-quarter average of 46%.

As more people get vaccinated and offices are reopening, companies need to make a decision on how to manage their workforce. Employees that worked remotely for much of the past year will now circulate between work from home and commuting to the office. But do employees really want to work from home or from the office 5 days a week? CEE-based flex office provider New Work believes that the future belongs to flexible workplaces everywhere and they see demand for hundreds of flex office locations across each country in the region.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, warehouse take-up hit a record high of 1.6 million sqm, reveals an industrial market summary for Q1 2021 released by global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield. The strongest leasing activity was reported in Poznań, the Warsaw area, Upper Silesia and Central Poland.

Arcadis has published the annual results of the International Comparison of Construction Costs which demonstrates that the building industry has shown its resistance worldwide during the pandemic. Many governments took advantage of fiscal stimuli to support their economies, which has reflected an increase in infrastructure investment of the public sector. Within CEE, Vienna (#30) has by far the highest construction costs, followed by Zagreb (#64), Bucharest (#65), Sofia (#66), Prague (#66), Warsaw (#70), Belgrade (#72) and Krakow (#75).

In the 11 shopping streets under the umbrella of the Shopping Street Management (BUM), some 90% of businesses survived the coronavirus pandemic, and the number of stores for sale or rent is decreasing in more and more places, BUM told Hungarian news wire MTI based on its survey carried out at the beginning of May.

The first quarter of 2021 saw record low vacancies in the greater Prague region, affirming consistent high interest in industrial premises in premium locations. High demand is pushing lease prices upwards, with lease prices having grown by 25 % per sqm year-on-year within the Prague cadastral district, for example. The Czech industrial real estate market is being impeded by drawn-out approval processes and a lack of new options in areas with the greatest demand.

Hungary's construction output in March was 11.5% higher than in the previous month, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Thursday. Hungary’s construction industry has corrected the February slump and the rising trend remained unbroken, but the pre-crisis peaks are still some way off.