The View 9

6

OFFICE OCCUPIERS IN CEE

INTERVIEW WITH KATE MCMURTRIE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ADVISORY & TRANSACTION SERVICES CEE

Last year’s forecasts were mostly proven wrong: economic performance in the region was poorer but real estate markets ended up better off than expected. How do you see 2019?What were themain challenges and learning points? Our CEE/SEE office markets performed in the majority exceptionally well in 2019, despite external global headwinds. Overall, it was a record year for our office teams, with over 1,000,000 sq m transacted for our clients. I congratulate both our clients for their success stories and our teams for their hard work throughout the year. As for the main trends we observed: office occupier clients needed more flexibility, more cost effectiveness, and longer lead times in order to define the correct balance for their portfolios and receive approvals for projects. This, in light of shifting market supply and rising competition for large blocks of space, could create clear challenges. In many of our markets, those supply constraints are leading a growing trend in pre-lets in future developments for large occupiers. Office fit-out investment remained a sensitive topic for tenants overall due to corporate constraints. A wave of new flexible office offers flowed across CEE, creating positivemomentumbut also a greater imperative for occupiers to objectively evaluatehow to integrateflex solutions into their CEE/SEEoperating strategy. Creating activity-based, healthy workplaces and placemaking strategies that will be embraced by future generations of talent are key trends that we are passionate about and will continue to explore with our clients in 2020. Most forecasts show consensus around a deteriorating economic outlook for the region, but the service sector is most likely to remain sound. What are the main trends you expect to materialize in 2020? Where are the risks and opportunities at this point in the cycle? We felt that 2019 started up very quickly, with very active demand coming from our occupier clients – but I would say that our first month of 2020 has felt even more energetic. In general, we continue to see very strategic project opportunities in CEE and SEE for our clients and the markets feel positive. Speed tomarket and creating strategic balance in office portfolios will be key topics again this year. Overall, we are tracking economic indicators closely