PL

Edition 7 (171) July 2012

Editorial

Virtual, but not unreal

What does a football fan do when Poland wins Euro 2012? Turn off the console and go to bed. This was one of jokes circulating on the net after the white and reds crashed out of the recent European Football Championships and a good example of Polish laughter through the tears. It also makes me realise that the virtual world, designed and created by us, is somehow an attempt to replace the real one.

Ewa Andrzejewska
Office & mixed-use development

Going out to paint the town Okre

POLAND Okre Development, which had until recently been operating as E&L Real Estates, has a number of completed projects, mainly office and residential developments, under its belt after seventeen years of operating on the market. After a period of preparing new projects, the company is back in the game. It is planning to start the construction of Green Wings Offices in Warsaw soon, while an office building on ul. Grójecka, also in Warsaw, is in the pipeline, as well as the next stage of the Na Skraju Lasu estate in Poznań.

Aneta Cichla
Investment & finance

Wikana makes its move

POLAND Wikana, a Lublin-based company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, has ambitious plans for this year. Its directors are considering the modernisation of a portfolio of properties purchased from Redevco, and are planning to complete a number of retail projects as well as the Wikana Business Park office complex in Lublin. Wikana also wants to launch residential projects in the summer and is to build spa apartments in a joint venture with Uzdrowiska Polskie. The investment costs for all these projects exceed PLN 100 mln.

Aneta Cichla
Construction

A fall from the very top

POLAND Back in December last year, the management of Hydrobudowa Polska, part of Grupa PBG, wrote to the company's shareholders and investors. The letter began: Having assessed the current financial condition of Grupa HBP, we can say that we are in good shape, while the prospects of the market which we operate in provide the basis for looking to the future with optimism. However, in June this year the contractor of such projects as the National Stadium in Warsaw, the PGE Arena in Gdańsk, the Municipal Stadium in Poznań and the A1 motorway, announced that three companies from Grupa PBG, PBG, Hydrobudowa Polska and Aprivia had decided to file for bankruptcy, subject to arrangements, with creditors at the Poznań district court.

Zuzanna Wiak
Stock market report

Looking up despite everything

Now it is not only the financial problems of southern Europe that are dampening investors? moods. The economic slowdown in the eurozone as well as weak economic data from China and the USA should in theory add to downward pressure on share prices. But last month turned out not to be so bad for the indexes

(Mir)
Feature

One tool to rule them all?

With the international launch of the HQE (High Environmental Quality) green building certificate in June by French organisation Certivéa (part of the CSTB sustainable development research group), another set of initials has been added to the alphabetti-spaghetti of tools for rating the energy efficiency of buildings

Nathan North
Feature

Addressing the millions

Nearly 17 mln Poles have accounts on social networking sites. They tend to be exceptionally active and aware internet users and the property market is now starting to see the need for communicating with them

Radosław Górecki
Facility Management

Searching for real value

Google can provide us with a wealth of information. It even features pictures of buildings from the street level. But does it allow valuers to cut corners, such as remotely viewing a property? and what would be the consequences?

Alex Hayes
Hotels

Economic equals strategic

What drives the hotel market in Poland? Macroeconomics and or perhaps first of all customers wallets. After the credit crunch, the budgets of hotel guests have become more modest and their spending is lower

Events

Kicking things off

An unusual event took place on May 30th in the Sky Box at the Legia Warszawa Stadium. ?IVG and ?Eurobuild CEE? invited the real estate agents who work with IVG for football-related fun and games

Eurobuild CEE
Events

Living in a digital world

Many topics were discussed at the 13th Retail Vision conference organised by Eurobuild Conferences in Warsaw, but the themes that came to dominate were location and the effect that growing online sales are to have on the real-world retail market

Alex Hayes
Endpiece

Building for squirrels

Many of Warsaw's beautiful green areas are fast disappearing. Developers are fighting fiercely to buy up land within the capital for development. Is this such a bad thing?

Alex Hayes

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