Futureal Group has exited its €19 million mezzanine financing provided to Caelum Development for the development of ParkLake shopping centre in Bucharest, Romania. The 70,000 sqm GLA project was developed by a joint venture between Sonae Sierra and Caelum Development. Futureal Group will intensify its activity in Romania through its residential investments subsidiary, Cordia. The company has recently announced a €50 million worth of investment plan in Bucharest for the next year, part of a long-term roadmap for the local market. Cordia division plans to deliver about 500 apartments per year, designed for medium and medium high segments.

Wing has begun preparations for the construction of another office building in one of Budapest’s most dynamically developing districts, right next to the recently inaugurated Telekom HQ. With a total floor space of 40,000 sqm, the Liberty Office Building will offer premium office and retail space. A distinctive feature and main appeal of the people-oriented building, constructed to BREEAM ‘Very Good’ certification requirements, is a plant-filled, two-storey high rooftop greenhouse spanning the wing along the boulevard and a skybar with a panoramic view to the Buda mountains.

In the third quarter of 2018, the Polish warehouse market was bolstered by 683,400 sqm of new supply. At the end of September, storage space in Poland exceeded 15 million sqm, which means that in the last 5 years the total surface volume has doubled. Almost 2 million sqm remains under construction, of which more than 25% in Central Poland.

Ghelamco presented Warsaw Unit, its latest Warsaw project, previously known as Spinnaker. The 180-metre skyscraper is scheduled to be completed in early 2021. The project’s budget is nearly €200 million.

Prologis has started development of a new 16,700 square meter facility at its fully occupied Prologis Park Wrocław V. The company has already signed the first pre-lease agreement for 6,000 square meters in the new building with a logistics operator in the aviation industry.

Poland's industrial sector remains in great shape. Up to 2.8 million sqm of space was leased and 1.3 million sqm delivered to market from the beginning of January to the end of September 2018. Nearly 2.1 million sqm of industrial space remains under construction, according to JLL.

With reduced tolerance for risk in property acquisitions, the use of title insurance has increased. Fifteen years after its introduction, it continues to play a growing role in the CEE real estate market. Jean-Bernard Wurm, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Secure Legal Title, London talked to Property Forum about the title insurance market in CEE.

Colliers International is predicting it will be a further seven years before there is a rebalancing of the physical and online retailing sectors across Europe.

For growing numbers of employees across Europe's big cities, heading into the office no longer entails sitting at the same desk, next to the same colleagues each day. As more companies of all shapes and sizes choose turn to flexible space – whether its hot-desking areas in buildings they already occupy or taking space in independently owned coworking set-ups - it's fast becoming part of modern working life and a small but increasingly significant part of Europe's office markets. Europe's flex space footprint has doubled since the start of 2015, according to JLL's report. In 2017 alone, flexible space grew by 29 percent, adding around 620,000 square meters.

M7 Real Estate has refinanced a €4.8 million debt facility secured against the Mani Business Centre in Zagreb, Croatia with Erste Bank Zagreb following the completion of M7’s successful asset management strategy for the property.