Two large transactions in excess of €200 million that closed in Q1 and pipeline transactions of at least €1.5 billion point to the overall investment volume for 2019 exceeding the figures achieved in 2018 in 2019, according to the latest research from Colliers International.  

Leading Cities Invest, a KanAm Grund Group fund, has entered the Polish market by acquiring the Renaissance office building in central Warsaw from a fund managed by GLL Real Estate Partners. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Flow East has announced that its new development, currently under construction on Wenceslas Square, will be named "The Flow Building". The mixed-use project will offer nearly 15,000 sqm of Class A office space and 6,000 sqm of high-quality retail space upon its completion in 2020.

JLL is responding to the strengthening trend of flexible offices along with the entry of new centres on the Czech market and introduces a unique consulting service in this sector in the Czech Republic. Tereza Bílá joined the JLL Landlord & Brokerage team as a Flexspace Consultant on June 1st.

GTC is gearing up in Budapest by commencing construction of Pillar office project located in the Budapest’s 13th district,. Recently, GTC celebrated the completion of their LEED Platinum certified GTC White House office building located also in Váci Road corridor, fully leased to BlackRock, Range Rover Jaguar, and Spaces. To further expand its position on the Budapest office market, GTC acquired one more land plot adjacent to GTC’s Center Point to increase the development pipeline to over 100,000 sqm of office space.

The EBRD is supporting capital market development in Romania with a €50 million investment in the second benchmark-sized €500 million corporate bond issued by NE Property B.V.

The Romanian industrial and logistics market has grown remarkably, in as far as the intensity of both developments and national freight transport is concerned. According to Colliers International, the most active logistics hubs besides Bucharest are Constanta – the easternmost urban centre, Alba – located almost centrally and Timis – the most western county in Romania, as these four markets together account for almost a quarter of the national goods transported in Romania via roads.

Krakow’s office stock has increased by more than 15% over the year to more than 1.3 million sqm at the end of Q1 2019. According to “Occupier Economics: Office Market in Krakow Q1 2019”, a report published by m Cresa, the capital city of Lesser Poland continues to attract tenants and this trend is likely to carry on into the near future given the economic and cultural potential.

Orbis decided on the potential disposal of its service activity (asset light entity) and entered into exclusive negotiations with Accor - proceeding with the Company business model transformation.

Panellists of the CEE investment roundtable of Prague Property Forum 2019, led by Mike Atwell, Head of Capital Markets Czech Republic and Lead Director CEE at JLL discussed the key trends shaping the regional investment market. They agreed that the low interest rate environment is probably here to say but it's very difficult to say for how long.