Confidence and quality on display at CIJ Awards Hungary 2018
The 10th edition of the CIJ Awards Hungary took place in Hungary on December 12 in the Marriott Budapest along the Danube river in front of nearly 200 of the country's top real estate professionals. A total of 31 prizes were handed out during the evening, illustrating the renewed power of the Hungarian capital as an attractive investment destination for European and international investors.
Among the most competitive categories this year was the Best Office Development prize, whose nominations reflected the enormous boom in that category that's been taking place over the past two years. This year's prize went to GTC, which completed the impressive GTC White House building. Futureal Management also made it up on stage on the development front for its SZGD Innovation Incubator scheme which won Best Regional Development for 2018. Finally, the company won the Best Retail Development prize for Etele Plaza. The Best Residential Development was won by Cordia for its project Grand Corvin. Finally, WING was honored with the Best Overall Developer prize for 2018.
In the agency section of the prize giving, it was Cushman & Wakefield that had a big year. Not only did it win the Best Office Real Estate Agency and Best Retail Real Estate Agency but it also brought home the Best Warehouse Real Estate Agency. However, it was CBRE that was declared as 2018's Best Capital Markets Team and its director Lóránt Kibédi Varga was quickly called back to the stage to accept the Best Leadership prize. A new award, Employer of the Year, Power by Hays, was won by HB Reavis.
Shifting to service providers, Erste Bank Hungary was this year's Best Bank winner while the Best Law Firm accolades went to CMS and Cushman & Wakefield made yet another trip to the stage for the evening to accept the Best Project Manager Company. Eston International Property Advisors broke into the limelight this year as Best Property Management Company but Strabag Property and Facility Services is now a veteran when it comes to winning the Best Facility Management Company.
The final section of standard awards began with cheers from the CPI Hungary table for Innovation of the Year as its Balance Hall – Conscious Building attracted the most votes from jurors. Biggeorge Property won in a related category, New Concept of the Year, for Emerald Residence. The Rising Star of the Year prize for Hungary was awarded to RedWood Real Estate but the winner of Best PR & Marketing Campaign of the Year was no newcomer: HB Reavis picked up the prize for its Agora Budapest Campaign.
An additional eight Special Achievement Awards were also handed out at the Marriott. They were: Best Investment Transaction was awarded to the Mill Park deal; Best Retail Development (Futureal Management/Etele Plaza); Best Warehouse Development (Goodman Hungary Goodman/Üllő Airport Logistics Centre); Best Office Development <10K sqm (RedWood Real Estate / Ecodome Office Building - The Living Office); Leading Female Property Professional (Bori Gedai/GTC Hungary); Best 4RE-Refurbishment / Recommercialisation / Rebranding / Relaunch (Ceetrus/Budaörs); Best FIT-OUT (CPI Hungary/CPI Hungary Headquarters); Best Warehouse Lease (CTP Management Hungary/CTPark Székesfehérvár).
