One of the IREI NewsCloud headlines on page 15 this month reads “Central Europe still a strong investment market.” That is undoubtedly the case. The lead story on central Europe in the June 2016 issue of Institutional Real Estate Europe pointed to the factors that are pulling real estate investors into the region, with Poland and the Czech Republic forming the principal focus of attention, and those factors have since gained in significance.

In Poland — larger in all respects than the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia combined — buoyant office market leasing and development activity in the first quarter strengthened suggestions that 2016 will prove to be another record year. JLL reports that Polish office take-up in Q1 2016 stood at 250,400 square metres, with Warsaw taking the lion’s share, at 142,200 square metres, but there were also strong contributions from Poland’s regional cities, especially Kraków.

According to JLL, Poland’s top offic