Demand on Romania's industrial and logistics market reached 456,000 square meters in the first nine months of 2017, close to the level recorded for the whole last year when it cumulated 463,000 square meters, according to JLL:

Albanian company Balfin Group has acquired a 155 000 sqm plot of land, 1.5 km from the centre of Skopje. The company plans to develop the first mixed-used real-estate development project in excess of 250,000 sqm gross build area, estimated to be largest private investment of this type in Macedonia. The development plans include a new 45 000 sqm gross leasable area shopping mall, residential block and an office park. The overall total investment of the company is planned to be circa €180 million over a time-span of 5-7 years, with €100 million investment in first phase, creating thousands of new jobs and opportunities. The company states that the shopping mall will be developed first, and the apartments and office towers over the next 5-7 years.

CTP Group, Allianz Group and ING Bank have signed a new €160 million syndicate loan for the financing of a portfolio of industrial properties in the Czech Republic. This loan serves both to refinance existing loans from a group of CEE banks and to finance new projects which have been completed in 2017. The refinancing with Allianz and ING is part of CTP´s ongoing strategy to extend its network of financing partners, including seeking partners outside the CEE region.

The Bulgarian property market is booming with the total transaction volume expected to exceed €1 billion in 2017. The outlook for the future is highly positive: strong demand, underpinned by solid economic growth, encourages developers to start new projects in all segments of the market.

At the end of Q3 2017, the vacancy rate in the Czech industrial market reached 3.6%. Vacancy in Prague fell below the country average to the level of 2.8%. The Industrial Research Forum has released the final industrial market figures for Q3 2017.

The office markets of Central European capitals are growing dynamically with the number of new leases on the rise and vacancy rates hitting record lows in several cities. In light of all this it is no surprise that development activity is also heating up on the most popular markets of the region.

Total stock on the Czech industrial property market reached 6.71 million sqm by the end of the third quarter of 2017. From July to September this year, 68,000 sqm of new warehouse space were completed in 5 parks. Compared to Q2 2017, when a total of 208,000 sqm was delivered, it means a quarter-on-quarter decline of 67 percent. Compared to Q3 2016, when a total of 52,000 sqm was delivered to the market, it is a year-on-year increase of 31 percent. 108 Agency presented an overview of the Czech industrial property market.

Continued growth in the investment attractiveness of Warsaw has resulted in high demand for modern office space and is matched by tremendous developer activity. JLL summarised the situation on the Warsaw office market at the end of Q3 2017.

Orbis is launching Aparthotels Adagio - a new aparthotel brand on the Eastern European market. Enlarging the brand portfolio by adding Aparthotels Adagio, Orbis Group is diversifying its network development and enters the city-centre apartment market as a development acceleration lever.

ECE and Allianz have opened the new, comprehensively modernised food court of the shopping centre located in the Polish city of Katowice. During an extensive refurbishment period, the modernized food court of the centre received a new design with modern furniture and a better quality of stay. The refurbishment and modernization was conducted during ongoing operations in the centre in a construction time of approximately five months. All in all the owners invested €2 million into the modernization.