Occupier take-up of offices in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) during Q1-3 2010 increased by 21%, when compared to the same period of 2009, according to CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).

Moscow, Warsaw and Bucharest saw a strong upsurge in demand in leasing activity with 1.2 million m2 leased in Moscow alone, out of close to 2 million m2 overall, however Budapest and Prague registered a year-on-year decline in office take-up.

Jos Tromp, head of CEE Research & Consulting at CBRE, said: “Despite the fact that a small majority of the markets are still seeing development pipelines slowing down as a result of restricted financing and limited absorption, several markets such as Moscow, Warsaw, Prague and Zagreb have recently started to witness increased development pipeline figures where mainly due to limited supply, interesting opportunities are arising for banks and developers.

”However, before these developments become available to the market, increases to stock levels will be less significant than in previous years. New supply in Warsaw and Budapest will be close to historic lows until 2012 at least.”

Office stock has increased in 2010 to date by 1.5 million m2 in the CEE and with some large developments due to be completed in Q4 across the region, the annual completion level for 2010 is likely to reach 2.2 million m2 which will be around one third lower than the 2009 level. Despite generally lower development activity in Central Europe (CE) and Eastern Europe (EE), markets such as Bucharest and Sofia are expected to see continuing high levels of development completions becoming available to their markets in the short to medium term.