Fuelled by hope

Some echoes of these rumbles could be felt in the articles and interviews we published a month ago, even though they were couched in such carefully guarded statements as: “but if the situation were to become more complicated…” And then two days later, on the morning of February 24th, the world that most of us knew came to an end – a world that had been somewhat stressful at times, maybe even dangerous, but without exploding shells and burning homes, without tanks with blown-off turrets, without refugees streaming across military supply lines and without convoys of trucks carrying humanitarian aid. And it was also a world without the immense, unprecedented and spontaneous nationwide response by Poles and other countries in the region to help their neighbours fleeing from the senseless destruction. As I write at the end of March, we have recovered from the first shock, each of us dealing with this traumatic experience in their own way and probably adding their own efforts to the charitable work. However, most of us have since had to return to our everyday work, since new challenges, of which there are still many before us, require a solid financial base.

In the April edition of ‘Eurobuild’, the word ‘war’ and other related terms appear quite frequently. We start with an analysis, which I dare to say will interest everyone in the real estate market. After all, it’s absolutely no exaggeration to say that its fate depends on the property valuation market – and this is always rocked whenever there’s a crisis, let alone a war. We also take a look at our regional office markets, which are hard on the heels of the Polish capital city in terms of their growth. We will also try to convince you that office fit-outs can form a major part of your ESG strategy, so it’s worth embracing the circular economy when designing your new HQ. We also have two interesting reports for you. One (on our Polish pages) from Poland’s eastern border – where a small but valiant convoy organised by ‘Eurobuild’ and its friends made its way – entitled ‘Everyone can help’, and undoubtedly we were able to show this. The other report is from Cannes, as the largest investment fair in Europe returned to the French resort after a three-year break. You can find out about the good vibrations that emanated from the event in both our report and by listening to our podcasts direct from MIPIM.

Just to finish off I want to share one of my fondest memories from Cannes. The ‘Eurobuild’ team - just like many other members of the Polish delegation – wore yellow and blue stickers on our lapels throughout the entire fair. Quite often people from other countries, seeing the Polish names on our badges, would come up to us and shake our hands, telling us of their gratitude for all Poland was doing for Ukraine. This was a source of enormous pride for us, as well as hope, giving us the strength and motivation to carry on with what we have been doing. And hope and motivation are first-class energy-rich fuels that you don’t have to import from anywhere.