Poland prepares for UEFA 2012

Business park developments in Bulgaria is behind Central Europe

Varna Airport doubles its capacity with new terminal

Largest Czech inner-city regeneration planned for Ostrava

Sharp drop in office space in Mexico City

New Zealand’s government considering removing tax advantages

Panama tops the list in the Latin American Globalisation Index

Indian railways starting feasibility study for 250km bullet trains

Varna Airport doubles its capacity with new terminal

Varna Airport in Bulgaria has doubled its capacity through the opening of a new passenger terminal, according to the airport managing director Andreya Andreev.

The new terminal can handle four arriving or departing aircraft at the same time, or passenger traffic of 800 to 1,000 people, Andreev said. Airport concessionaire Fraport is working on a project for another new terminal at Varna, which is expected to be completed in two years time.

Largest Czech inner-city regeneration planned for Ostrava

Nearly a year after winning the public tender for the redevelopment of a 30-hectare Karolina site in Ostrava, North Moravia, developer Multi Development has made public its vision of “New Karolina.”

After all the phases of the mixed-use development on the site of a former coking plant are completed, it will be the largest regeneration project in a Czech inner-city center, according to Multi. The project will feature retail, office and residential development on a total of 215,000 square meters.

Netherlands-based architecture firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), designed the first phase of New Karolina, consisting of a shopping and leisure center on some 50,000 sqm. The developer expects to launch construction next spring and complete the first phase by mid-2010, with the entire complex to be finished in 2016.

Multi estimates that the redevelopment of New Karolina is worth some €400m. However, there has been a complaint that the tender organized by Ostrava City Hall was irregular.

The Czech Chamber of Architects (CKA) has complained that the City of Ostrava failed to respect results of an international urban architecture competition for the development of Karolina, which was organized in 1999. It said that last year’s Karolina tender result could set a bad example for other organizers of public tenders.

Meanwhile, other investors are discovering Ostrava’s development opportunities. Property development company Red Group completed the structural construction of the Orchard complex in Ostrava on 30 May. The first phase of the office development, (12,000sqm), is set to open in October, while a hotel with 185 rooms should be completed by the end of the year.

Another developer, Skanska Property Czech Republic, has just announced a new office development project called Nordica, which is to provide more than 12,500sqm of A-class offices along the Českobratrská and Soukenická streets in the center of Ostrava. Nordica will provide some retail units as well. The building’s construction, worth an estimated €14m, is scheduled for launch in the second half of 2007 and should be ready for tenants in the first half of 2009.

Poland prepares for UEFA 2012

Poland will face further real estate price increases over the next few years due to the UEFA 2012 soccer tournament, partly hosted by Poland, according to Polish credit agency and financial advisory platform emFinanse.

“The accumulation of two sports events (2012 UEFA tournament in Poland and Ukraine and 2012 Olympics in Great Britain) is likely to cause detrimental changes for our housing market,” said Tomasz Szmidt of emFinanse. “The lack of skilled workforce and the increase of building materials' prices are basic factors that may influence further rises in prices per square metre in the residential market.”

Poland and the Ukraine won their bid to host the 2012 UEFA tournament on 18 April. The two host nations will now need to launch massive construction efforts, building sports facilities, roads, railways, airports and border crossings. Marta Kosinska, an analyst at real estate agency szybko.pl said the investments in infrastructure development in Poland will hamper the housing sector.

Currently around 120,000-130,000 flats are constructed in Poland each year, while the market could absorb around 1.5m of new flats, according to Kosinska.

Business park developments in Bulgaria is behind Central Europe

Business park developments in Bulgaria are three to seven years behind Central European levels, says news analysis service Industry Watch.

Fast economic growth, EU accession and increase in foreign investment feature are among the main factors influencing business park development in Central and Eastern Europe, investor.bg reported.

Investor interest in Bulgaria is changing from Sofia to other economically developed cities like Plovdiv, Varna and Rousse.

Most business parks in Bulgaria act as administrative centres or production terrains.

Panama tops the list in the Latin American Globalisation Index

Panama is the most globalised economy in Latin America and Brazil the least, according to the second annual Latin American Globalization Index from the Latin Business Chronicle.

The index of 19 countries looks at six factors that measure a country's links with the outside world including; exports of goods and services as a percent of GDP, imports of goods and services as a percent of GDP, foreign direct investment as a percent of GDP, tourism receipts as a percent of GDP, remittances (transfers of money by foreign workers to their home countries) as a percent of GDP, and Internet penetration.

Despite growing populism and political tensions, Latin America is becoming more globalised, according to the results from the 2006 Index. But Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, managed to replace Argentina as the least-globalised economy in the region. Venezuela also came at the bottom of the Index.

Central America scored well overall, with Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, all listed in the top half of the table.

Indian railways starting feasibility study for 250km bullet trains

Indian Railways has decided to go ahead with its feasibility study on a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) initiative for 250km per hour bullet trains in three routes in and out of Kerala. According to the broad financial plan, the project would cost €9m per km.

“The key financial players would be Railways, Central government, state government and a private partner”, said JP Batra, chairman of the Railway Board.

The three routes currently being studied are; Kerala-Kochi-Bangalore, Kerala-Kochi-Chennai, and Kerala-Mangalore.

Sharp drop in office space in Mexico City

Strong demand and little supply are leading to a sharp drop in available office space in Mexico City, according to Cushman and Wakefield Mexico.

With vacancy rates heading toward zero, developers are under heavy pressure to come up with more top-class commercial office space in  Mexico City. Demand is also strong for quality retail and industrial space in the huge Mexican capital and its environs.

“A couple of years ago, the vacancy rate for top quality offices was about 18-20%”, said Víctor Lachica, president and CEO of Cushman and Wakefield México. “Now that's down to about 6-7% and it’s still falling.”

Top-quality office space now rents for about $22 sqm, according to a Cushman and Wakefield study, while the average for all grades is $18.20. Much of the shortage of top-quality space has arisen, says Lachica, as companies have moved from older, poorly equipped offices attracted by the relatively low price differential.

New Zealand’s government considering removing tax advantages

New Zealand ’s government is considering removing tax advantages for rental property investors who claim their losses against tax.

Michael Cullen, finance minister, told Parliament that the Treasury and the Reserve Bank have recommended the ringfencing of losses from residential property investment.

The Federation of Property Investors says it will lobby against their removal. President Martin Evans says property owners don’t currently receive any tax advantages over those in other industries.