Office

Oscar-winning "Parasite" filmmaker Bong Joon-ho and other South Korean stars called for an investigation on Friday into police and media conduct in the days leading to actor Lee Sun-kyun's death.

Lee, best known globally for his starring role in Bong's 2019 film "Parasite", was found dead in a car in Seoul last month, after a two-month police investigation over suspected drug use.

Office occupancy in Istanbul, Türkiye's financial and commercial center, has hit a 10-year high of 84.9 percent as of June, according to a report by C&W Türkiye International.

The city's office market has recovered fast from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the general office supply in Istanbul standing at 6.46 million square meters.

Rents are up to three times more expensive in modern and energy-efficient office buildings that have been built recently than older office stock. This explains their appeal among investors as well as real estate development companies.

The office market expects major shifts in the coming years, due to the emergence of hybrid work and the increased need to create flexible workspaces.

The reduced presence of ever more workers in the workplace is a trend that has intensified since the pandemic and is expected to diversify the way office buildings are used, increasing the need for greater flexibility.

For companies in Slovenia, making informed decisions about their office space is a difficult task. Typically, there are no estate managers in Slovenian companies, and the job normally goes to someone ill-equipped with little relevant experience, who struggles to make the right decision.

The office market in Athens showed some remarkable resilience during the third quarter of the year despite the pandemic, with 15 new deals reached for the lease of commercial spaces adding up to 19,000 square meters, according to data collected by Proprius.

After residential properties, it is the turn of modern office spaces in Athens to record major hikes in their rental rates.

According to the latest report by Geoaxis Property & Valuation Services, at the start of the year the average increase amounted to 8 percent from a year earlier, and in several cases the hikes were even higher.

64,000 square meters of new offices were put into operation in Sofia in the first quarter of the current year. Thus, the percentage of vacant areas is slightly higher - from 9.5% to 9.8%. Major clients continue to be IT and BPO companies.

Rental rates for modern office spaces have recorded an increase of up to 11 percent over the last 12 months as a result of steady high demand and a lack of new developments: This means that interested investors are forced to seek spaces almost exclusively within the existing and quite saturated stock of commercial properties in terms of quality.

Sofia is first in Europe in growth of office rents in the third quarter of the year. For this period, the increase is 7.1% compared to the previous one, with the average level now being 15 EUR per square meter. This is the data of Cushman & Wakefield consulting company, with Fortun being its strategic partner for Bulgaria.