Industrial halls worth €170m came on line in Central Europe in the first half of the year. Some 370,000 sqm of space were added to the market, mostly in Poland. The region is stable and major fluctuations are not expected for the upcoming months, writes Cushman & Wakefield in its most recent industrial market report. Vacancy rates have stabilized around 10 percent on average. The only countries with lower vacancy rates are the Czech Republic and Slovakia where demand slightly exceeds the current supply of vacant space. “There is room for further development CE, but new projects are not taking off,” said Ferdinand Hlobil, head of Cushman & Wakefield’s CEE Industrial Team. “A shortage of domestic investors capable of purchasing completed halls is one of the reasons. But developers want and need to sell the completed parks so that they can invest the proceeds from the sale in further development. The structures for this type of investments have not been established in our country historically, culturally or legally. International investors purchase the best products, facing no competition from local investors. But international funds only purchase a certain amount in our region, and further funds should come from local investors,” he said.
