Garyj Morrell News Today

This has been a restrained year for development activity in the office and retail fields. That in the industrial and hotel sectors, however, has been more dynamic. Investment activity has reflected the cautious wait-and-see strategy being adopted by investors towards the Hungarian property markets and, indeed, CEE and Europe as a whole.

The design competition run by the local chapter of the FIABCI International Real Estate Federation celebrated a landmark anniversary this November with the 25th annual Hungarian Prix d’Excellence awards.

Development in the various real estate markets in Hungary is impacted by concerns about demand and concluding the preleases that enable a project to go ahead, the availability and cost of financing, the increasingly protracted planning and permitting process, rising construction, maintenance and utility costs, and, finally, the opportunity of an exit strategy with a sale onto an investor at an appropriate time in the business cycle of an asset.