Hungarian team was market leader with 33% market share in Budapest
Although there has been a slight decline in total office demand, CBRE has achieved remarkable result by leasing 1 million square meters of office space last year in the CEE region. The Budapest market has experienced dynamic growth in 2019, which also shown by the fact that CBRE – as the market leader in the country – had a 33% share of the market.
Highest market shares so far in all CEE countries
CBRE managed to lease more office space in 2019 than the previous year – despite the rather mixed picture across CEE office leasing markets. While net take-up in Vienna went back by 15% and by almost 30% in Bratislava, Bucharest and Moscow posted remarkable growth (30% and 23%, respectively). Lease renewals were on rise across the region.
In 2019, real estate brokers were active on leasing transactions in a total of four million square meters in the CEE region (including Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania and the city of Moscow). As the market leader brokerage in the region, CBRE accounted for a quarter of all the leases and successfully surpassed 1 million square meters of lease in the region for the first time on record. In terms of city volumes, CBRE teams transacted 230,000 sq m in Warsaw, 130,000 sq m in Budapest and 118,000 sq m in Prague - to name the three largest markets by absolute volume.
“Office markets in Central Eastern Europe performed in the majority exceptionally well, despite external global headwinds. Overall, 2019 was a record year for our office teams, with more than 1,000,000 sq m transacted. Our outlook for 2020 is positive, another busy year for the region, with a growing trend in pre-lets on future developments for our occupier clients.” – commented Kate McMurtrie, Executive Director, A&T Occupier (Offices), Central & Eastern Europe.
Office Demand Reaches Historic Highs in Budapest
The strong Hungarian economy coupled with Budapest’s attractive market fundamentals resulted in record levels of take-up in the office market in 2019. The total lease volume (including new leases, pre-leases, expansions and renewals) equated to circa 640,000 sq m over the year, in which CBRE leased 130,000 sq m, an absolute record for any agency in Hungarian office market history. In relative terms this equals to a 33% share for CBRE among the real estate agencies in 2019, highest on record.
‘The Budapest office market is currently in a very Landlord favourable part of the cycle, we have historical low Vacancy (5.6%) and although there is a healthy amount of new supply on the market, only 70,000 sq m was delivered in 2019, further compounding the reduction in the Vacancy rate. Although there were several large pre-lease transactions (above 20,000 sq m) many Occupiers decided to renew in situ given the Landlord favourable terms or due to lack of availability, and also the fact they (arguably) benefitted from existing more tenant friendly renewal provisions. Given the strong economic fundamentals in Hungary, for 2020 CBREs forecast is for strong levels of demand, as Occupiers continue to be in growth mode.’ – commented Anikó P. Kovács, Director, Head of A&T Services, Offices at CBRE Hungary.
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