A plaza-building fever is raging in Budapest - this time, appearing under the guise of city centre developments. The positive expectations of the retail market are no doubt fuelled by the confidence in rising consumption, just as the seemingly unstoppable increasing in office space is banking on the willingness to expand. We witnessed a similar trend a few years ago on the residential market, when developments were launched at a breakneck pace. Even though these projects have now been completed, their fruits are quite sour, as there are several districts in Budapest where 40 percent of new homes are lying vacant. And of course, we have also seen brand-new giga-plazas and high-tech logistics centres standing utterly deserted, although in these cases the explanation was that the problem was "only" with location, not with demand. Did the others make the right choices? We'll find out next year...
