Total demand on the Budapest industrial market amounted to 122,020 sqm in Q3 2017, showing a 44% increase year-on-year. The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial market analysis.

Residential markets are on the rise all over Europe. There are barely any countries where prices haven’t begun to increase since the crisis. Property Forum took a closer look at the Central and Eastern European region, to see which countries have seen the highest growth. Croatia is one of the countries where prices began to grow later rather than sooner, but this means that it may become a new hotspot for investors looking to profit from house price growth in the region.

Ghelamco has secured a €221 million loan for the construction of The Warsaw Hub from a consortium of five banks. Warsaw HUB, comprising three buildings, will have 113,000 sqm GLA of which 70,000 sqm of office space. The complex will also include retail space and a conference centre as well as two hotels. Completion is planned for 2020.

Echo Polska Properties has reached an agreement to acquire a portfolio of retail properties for €692.1 million. The portfolio comprises twelve retail properties of which eight comprise shopping centres and four retail parks with over 620 stores situated in strong regional cities across Poland. The portfolio has an aggregate gross lettable area around 450,000 sqm. The seller is the Chariot Top Group, owned by Pimco (37.5%), Oaktree Capital Management (37.5%) and Redefine Properties (25%).

Prologis announced the completion of an 18,100 square metre build-to-suit (BTS) facility for Arvato Polska at Prologis Park Stryków.

A subsidiary of NEPI Rockcastle has entered into an agreement to acquire two shopping centres in Poland for an aggregate sum of €249.4 million. Shopping centres Serenada (41,170 sqm) and Krokus 27,728 sqm) are to be extended for a further €212 million thus creating a single integrated shopping centre with a GLA of over 100,000 sqm.

ESON, a Taiwanese based company, put its mid-size production plan on the market. Located in the city of Partizánske, Western Slovakia, it offers approximately 7,000 sqm of industrial and warehouse space together with 3,000 sqm of office premises and accommodation facilities for employees. The production complex is situated less than 45 km away from the regional city of Nitra and Trenčín.

Poland is an attractive market to global investors. Its key strengths include the large population of nearly 40 million, a strategic location in Europe, strong economic growth and infrastructure developments, encouraging an increasing number of retailers to enter the Polish market. Contrary to appearances, deciding whether to expand is not an easy task even for the strongest corporations. Szymon Łukasik, Head of the Retail Department at Cresa Poland wrote about launching new brands on the Polish market.

Triuva Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft (Triuva) has acquired the Green Day office building in Wroclaw, Poland from a Luxembourg fund advised jointly by GLL Real Estate Partners GmbH (GLL) and Investec Bank PLC. The purchase price is believed to be in the region of €48.5 million.

Prosperity on the office market in Lesser Poland’s capital continues, as is evident from the number of new schemes delivered to the market and those under construction and in the pipeline as well as the volume of transactions completed. Experts at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland highlight that the market dynamics are not to any significant degree affecting rents or the vacancy rate which remain at a stable level.