Take, for example, our Special Report on Real Estate Development. While you will never meet a developer who is less than enthusiastic (especially about their own projects), it is noticeable how relatively downbeat the market is at the moment, despite the strength of the industrial and hotel sectors.

Investors are in a wait-and-see mode. The old standby of the office sector faces questions over the exact space requirements in a post-pandemic hybrid world (and however much Amazon may insist on having everyone back in the office, most analysts seem to agree that a three-two split between days in the office and days in home office is here to stay). Be assured, the new, spacious, flexible, ESG-compliant, third-party accredited office is far from dead. The trouble is that they are also far from common in Budapest, even less so in Hungary’s provincial cities.

As one of our expert witnesses tells us, only 3% of the Breeam-certified stock in Budapest reaches the highest “Outstanding” level; just 10% of Leed-classified offices achieve “Platinum.” It may not be true today, but it is not difficult tomorrow to envisage a world where non-ESG-compliant projects cannot find any financing.

Given the presumption that a new building is more efficient than an old one, but more damaging to the environment in terms of emissions, noise and disruption during construction, we may be approaching a stage where renovation and restoration become the order of the day. And perhaps, when you look at all those fabulous turn-of-the-century Budapest buildings needing some TLC, that is no bad thing. Older office blocks certainly don’t have that glamor, but why should they not be given new life and possibly a new function?

Elsewhere within the pages of this issue, it is heartening to see that the annual Hungarian Bank Blood Donor Drive is not only going strong in this, its fifth year, but it is expanding from a week to a month. It is a simple but effective way in which businesses, or in this case, an entire sector, can take a matter such as the constant need to keep Hungary’s hospitals supplied with blood and raise awareness both within those companies and the general population.

More do-goodery (and I absolutely don’t mean that in a pejorative way) is evident from the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary and its annual awards to promote not just sustainability but also diversity and much else besides

Allow me one final pitstop on this journey around the food for thought on offer on our pages this issue: the third Pharma CEO Breakfast event we held on Oct. 8. There are issues aplenty in this sector, but I always come away from these events heartened by the level of engagement.

Participants (and for those who have not attended, we always invite representatives from government, pharma associations, and companies themselves to speak) are prepared to engage, to disagree, but also to discuss. And there are so many exciting possibilities that those discussions could lead to, not to mention the groundbreaking drug trials and scientific research being performed in this country. If they can keep talking, and listening, they can surely keep achieving.

Robin Marshall

Editor-in-chief

This editorial was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of Oct. 18, 2024.