From August 2021, KGAL GmbH & Co. KG, a leading independent  European investment and asset manager based in Germany, has appointed Savills as property manager for Prague’s DRN building. Savills also continues to provide asset management services for the building, which it has been providing since July 2020.

According to Savills, European multifamily is now firmly established as Europe’s second-biggest real estate sector. At €24.1 billion it captured 23% of the investment activity in H1 2021 across the 12 countries that the international real estate advisor monitors. This compares to a five-year average of 16%. Office investment was the highest, accounting for 28% of the total, at €29.3 billion.

According to Savills, the European logistics market is on track for another record year, as investment volumes and take-up activity are already in excess of five-year averages at the half-year point. Take up in Poland in H1 2021 exceeded 3,000,000 sqm the first time in history and was higher than France, UK and Spain.

According to Savills, the European retail sector is increasingly looking more attractive to opportunistic investors. In the UK, there was a rise in opportunistic interest in the sector in the last quarter, supported by significant yield correction. In Poland, secondary retail assets are being traded at double-digit yields.

According to Savills latest research using Pitchbook data, €13.2bn of venture capital (VC) was raised by European headquartered life science companies between 2014 and 2018, resulting in over 650,000 sqm of office and lab deals across selected European life science markets between 2016 and 2020. Biotechnology and nanotechnology industries are also developing rapidly in Poland.

87% of respondents believe that the physical office is essential for successful business operations, reveals a survey conducted by real estate advisory firm Savills. Additionally, 54% of respondents feel that the hybrid model combining working from home and the office is the best for their health and well-being.

According to Savills, total modern office space in Prague increased slightly in Q2 2021 to 3.73 million sqm. Although subdued and still challenged by uncertainty, Q2 2021 saw a recovery in new supply as 49,500 sqm was delivered to the market across four new projects. Even though a decline of 57% is still visible in y-o-y comparison, new office supply for the second quarter is 10% above the pre-pandemic quarterly average.

According to Savills, the Czech nationwide industrial vacancy rate declined again and reached a new historic low of 2.4%, after dropping by 89 basis points (bps) since the end of 2020. The volume of new industrial space delivered to the market during H1 2021 was 43% down year-on-year (y-o-y). The total stock of modern industrial premises in the country grew by 192,300 sqm, of which 110,800 sqm were completed in Q2 2021. At the end of June, the total stock stood at 9.3 million sqm.

Total commercial property investment volumes climbed to €426 million in the Czech Republic during the second quarter of 2021, according to Savills latest research. This represents a 42% increase compared to the same period last year and a 47% increase in investment activity compared to the previous quarter.

Occupiers looking for quality workspace in Europe will face tough competition for the best space in the leasing market despite the most active period of new office construction in half a decade, Savills predicts. Newly developed offices set to complete in the region this year will provide 26% more space compared with 2020, says the European Office Development report.