Waltzing more gaily

Over 6,800 participants from 20 countries met in May in the Austrian capital to discuss the real estate market in our part of Europe. according to the official organizer’s summary of the event, it was a success. However, The fair was actually rather quiet – Hopefully, not too quiet.

Two hundred and twenty exhibitors, of mainly Austrian and German origin, gathered in one hall (last year the fair needed two halls for all the exhibitors) from May 18th to 20th. 
“Coming to the fair is natural for me because the headquarters of one of our shareholders, 
CA Immo, is in Vienna, and so they always have a stall here. The three days of the fair were an opportunity to meet colleagues from the Vienna office and colleagues from other countries in the region. Because Real Vienna is an event which focuses on the Central and South Eastern regions of Europe, the issues discussed during the conferences and discussion panels, as well as those dominating the conversations of fair attendees, are much more interesting for the guests from Poland than, for example, those at MIPIM,” remarked Andrzej Mikołajczyk, managing director of Mahler Property Services. It is hard not to compare this fair to those that take place in Cannes in March and Munich in October. “This meeting is perhaps not a milestone for the sector comparable with Expo Real or MIPIM, as the moods there influence the climate over the following months; this is only a so-called meeting point. However, it can definitely be said that the positive vibe for the recovering market, which started in March on the French Rivera, had firmly established itself in Vienna. It is worth visiting Real Vienna if only to meet a large number of German and Austrian investors, who flocked to the exhibition because of the convenient location of the event, among other reasons,” opined Michał Ćwikliński, from the Warsaw office of King Sturge. In his view, investors still believe first of all in good products that carry a low risk, but are also more and more willing to pay higher amounts for properties secured with long-term leasing contracts. There is clearly increasing interest not only in office buildings but also in shopping centres, retail parks and even warehouses. “A considerable improvement in the mood of investors is noticeable, first of all with reference to SEE markets. However, the favoured locations among our clients are still definitely Poland and the Czech Republic. I am convinced that significant capital will be invested in these countries over the next 2-3 years. Investors are not just ‘observing the market’ any more, as was often the case at Munich and Cannes. This time concrete terms were being discussed, which is confirmed by the number of letters of intent we have received,” emphasized Dariusz Kunik from the investment and development team at Aengevelt Immobilien. The spirits of the Kielce-based developer Echo Investment were also heightened in Vienna. In the opinion of their team, the fair signalled something of a decisive movement and an intensification of activity over the next few months, both on the part of tenants and shopping centre developers. Tomasz Domoń, the leasing manager of Echo Investment, summed up the event with these words: “The fair turned out to be an excellent opportunity to meet key tenants, in particular C&A, M&S, New Yorker, Hervis, Humanic and Deichmann, and to discuss the current situation and future development plans on European markets, and also in the context of Echo Investment’s pipeline projects – especially those that the company is planning to carry out abroad. Undoubtedly, the fair was accompanied by the perceptible air of a revival on the retail market and the growth of interest in new development possibilities on the part of tenants.” ν (And)