Opening gala party. Restaurant Stará celnice - V Celnici 4, 110 00 Praha 1



More than a decade into Central Europe’s shopping revolution, we’re now seeing sophisticated retail and leisure developments being completed on a regular basis. Probably the most complicated of the property sectors in any market, retail projects in Central Europe have had to reflect both worldwide shifts in the market as well as a massive shift in attitudes towards shopping by the local populations. How will older schemes have to adapt to survive? What is the new perception of what is required for leisure components?

Which strategies are working best for cities? Prague has decentralized its planning procedures while Warsaw has centralized. The change itself can be chaos-producing, but what’s going to work best in the end. How do you get civil servants to take a decision when this is what they tend to fear most? Do local planning officials appreciate the requirements of modern economic life and the demands this places on city centers?

Have yields on office properties gone as low as they can go? A year ago at CEDEM, there was confidence they would break 9 percent. Is there now fear they could fall below 8? Consideration will be given to the possibility of institutional money ‘escaping’ to the east. In addition, we’ll discuss whether the current investors in real estate funds aimed at Central Europe will be pleased with the returns they see in five to seven years.



Just a few months into EU membership, are there any surprises on the demand side for the office markets of Central Europe? None of the major markets has been particularly strong, but Prague’s has seemed the strongest and most stable and Warsaw has been showing signs of picking up. Is this being fuelled by back office jobs escaping from Western Europe to the new accession countries?

The borders to Europe have fallen leaving goods free to criss-cross the Continent, but the restructuring of the logistics sector is being blocked by existing traffic routes and infrastructure deficiencies. What are the realistic opportunities for growth in the industrial sector? Which are the most successful schemes and what are they doing right?

There's now an entire generation of real estate professionals in Central Europe who have contributed quite literally to the rebuilding of the region. Many of the veterans came with more ambition than experience, but they paved the way for gradual influx of larger, more institutional organizations. Together, this is unquestionably the group from which will come the pioneers for the development of Eastern European and the CCS. How will it be different this time? How much talent is already on the ground there today? Where are the real opportunities?