Growing Track

“WE ARE ON A CONSTANTLY GROWING TRACK” IMMOFINANZ has achieved significant success in both the fields of office leasing and the retail sector. In Hungary, very dynamic growth was recorded in 2018. By continuously updating to meet the latest market needs and trends, IMMOFINANZ Hungary is not only a valuable player on the market, but also a trend setter, taking into account its modern and unique myhive concept on the local market. Viktor Nagy, the Country Manager Operations Hungary of IMMOFINANZ was asked about the development in 2018.

What kind of year was 2018 for the company? It was another successful year for IMMOFINANZ; the company continues to enjoy very high tenant loyalty. The occupancy rate in the standing investment portfolio continued to improve and reached a new record level (at 95.8%) in the company’s history. With a portfolio volume of EUR 4.3 billion, the company is one of the leading commercial real estate players in Europe concentrating on office and retail properties. In Hungary, we have further strengthened our position with our two brands: myhive for offices and STOP SHOP for retail parks. We are on a constantly growing track.

Nearly two years ago, myhive was introduced to the office market, as an IMMOFINANZ international office brand. What does it mean for tenants to work in a myhive office? Our office concept is working very well; tenants appreciate it and their employees like to work in our myhive offices. We are currently continuing the roll-out of the brand in Vienna, Düsseldorf and Bucharest, which will give us a total of 26 locations in Europe. Our mission was to create more than an office, with a friendly atmosphere and the sort of infrastructure that not only encourages everyday work, but also inspires communication between tenants and helps to create an active community. The community manager is constantly present in the life of myhive office buildings, and not only organizes, but also keeps track of events and guarantees the quality of the services. To quantify the local myhive success, we organized nearly 100 events in Hungary and our tenants, employing 7,500 people, attended those events regularly in 2018. It supported by the myhive mobile application that we developed. Our tenants are able to interact with each other through it and it also strengthens the relationship of office workers.

How do the “more than office” services help tenants? There are a lot of aspects to keep in mind when looking for a new office, and the office itself gains importance regarding attracting and keeping employees. Therefore, not only the numbers are interesting, but also the creation of human relationships, social experiences and work-life balance

within the office buildings. It is ever more important for tenants to have a good time in the office building, and we make their everyday lives easier with our myhive services, so that employees love to work there.

Last year we recognized that the different composition of tenants in our office buildings requires different services. The regular events – business breakfasts, client parties, concerts, yoga classes, even a farmers’ market – are very popular. Maintaining high service quality levels for tenants is the responsibility of the community manager, who plays a key role in taking myhive services and lifestyle directly to the tenants.

What kind of extra services do you provide to tenants? An important factor of the success is that the company is constantly asking about the needs and expectations of the tenants and, based on those results, introduces new services for the convenience of the tenants. These new services include, for example, the

To quantify the local myhive success, we organized nearly 100 events in Hungary and our tenants, employing 7,500 people, attended those events regularly in 2018.

STOP SHOP is a leading brand among retail parks. Could you tell us about its international success? IMMOFINANZ is driving the expansion of its successful STOP SHOP retail park brand and has recently purchased eight retail parks in Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia. These transactions increased IMMOFINANZ’s STOP SHOP portfolio to 80 locations in nine countries, with more than 567,000 sqm of rentable space, and we want to strengthen our positioning as the leading retail park operator in Europe with further acquisitions and our own STOP SHOP development projects.

ParkL service launched with Park and Go at myhive Atrium Park, which offers available parking spaces to the guests. The tenants also asked for childcare services, therefore we opened the myplay childcare center where children can be taken care of for a few hours. It can be an important support for parents during the school holidays and also for parents who are returning to work. There are 14 STOP SHOPs in Hungary, and the occupancy rate is more than 98%. Last year, many new stores were opened or existing brands moved to larger premises. Both the international growth and the Hungarian successes indicates that people like STOP SHOP concept; parking is easy and our retail parks represents an easy-shopping concept for everyday needs with high recognition value.