Retail and hotel sectors recorded highest investment volumes in the Croatian commercial property market in 2017. According to information available and Colliers’s estimate, 2017 brought more than €320 million investment in transactions of 22 investment properties. This does not include pending transactions or confidential deals.

London ranked as Europe's most attractive city for businesses and employees for second year running, according to Colliers International's latest European Cities of Influence report, which reviews and ranks cities based on their occupier attractiveness, availability of talent, and quality of life factors alongside economic output and productivity; Paris, Madrid, Moscow and Birmingham making up the rest of the top five.

Hungarian investor Appeninn Nyrt. has announced that holding company Konzun sold over 2 million ordinary shares with the face value of HUF 100, issued by the company, to OTP Real Estate Investment Fund within an OTC transaction.

One of the fastest growing co-working chains has announced its entry into the Czech market. Business Link, hosted by Skanska, will open its first location in Prague in July of this year. At the Visionary office building located in Prague 7, the company will offer around 4,700 sqm of co-working space, including space for approx. 100 people, 159 private offices, and five conference rooms.

In 2018 we are likely to see new investors entering the region. However, at a time when the global allocation of capital is changing rapidly, it can be difficult to identify where a new investor is coming from. Marián Fridrich, Head of Transactions at IAD Investments talked market expectations and investment strategy.

EPP published its financial results for the full-year of 2017. During the period, the distributable income was at €76.6 million, exceeding the forecasts. At the same time, the company kept building its strong presence in Poland’s key cities, while EPP-owned properties enjoyed growing footfall and increasing sales. The value of asset portfolio rose by 29%, to €1.95 billion.

According to “Occupier Economics: Office Market in Wrocław in 2017”, a report prepared by Cresa, last year’s office supply in Wrocław was the lowest in six years while occupier demand remained robust. The city’s office take-up hit 174,500 sqm, which represented a 40% increase compared with 2016.

Poland has seen record-breaking absorption on the office market. In the last year alone, companies occupied additional 800,000 sqm of office space. This translates into more than 80,000 additional job positions in modern office buildings, JLL reports.

Prologis announced the sale of Prologis Park Hegyeshalom in Hungary to Horvath Rudolf Intertransport Ltd, a Hungarian logistics services provider. The transaction includes a fully leased Class A logistics facility totalling 32,300 square metres and 24 hectares of land. Noerr and JLL represented Prologis while Deloitte advised Horvath Rudolf. 

Exchange Palace the former Budapest Stock Exchange building co-owned by Canadian developer Tippin Corporation and Luxembourg Optimum Fund Management, has received a final building permit and will commence reconstruction works in 2018. The owners appointed JLL & CBRE appointed as co-exclusive leasing agents.