The AFI Ploiesti shopping center, owned by AFI Europe Romania, received the LEED Gold Certification. AFI Ploiesti thus becomes the only building in town to achieve the LEED Certification.

An international investment consortium comprising Wing, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing and CC Real has sold the West End Business Center office building in Budapest to OTP Property Investment Fund.

Gross take-up on the Romanian industrial market grew by 54% in H1 2017, compared with the same period of 2016, to 350,000 sqm. According to JLL Romania, the total demand for industrial space reached 180,000 sqm in the second quarter, a comparable level with the one registered in the first quarter of this year.

Immochan Romania has acquired Coresi Business Park in Brasov from Jacobs Holding. The 40,000 sqm office project is located next to Immochan’s retail and residential developments. The transaction price has not been disclosed.

Net take-up on the Czech industrial market in Q2 2017 totalled 231,200 sqm, representing a yearly decrease of 11%. The vacancy rate reached 4.1%, having decreased marginally by 6 bps since Q1 2017. The Industrial Research Forum announced the industrial market figures for Q2 2017. 

Arcona Capital has finalised the acquisition of the Maris office building in Szczecin, Poland from Bywater Properties for approximately €8.9 million. Following this acquisition, Polish assets now account for 40.5 percent of the portfolio of Arcona’s Arcona Property Fund. 

Investor appetite on the Polish real estate market in Q2 2017 has translated into high transaction volumes which stood at approximately €1 billion. The retail sector accounted for 80% market share of capital invested in Q2, mainly resulting from large portfolio acquisitions. If pending deals conclude, the year-end result should be close to €4.2-4.4 billion, which would be similar to the record of 2016.

Pan-European fund manager Aerium has sold a shopping centre in Brno to CPI Property Group, for an undisclosed sum. Built in 2004, Kralovo Pole Shopping Centre comprises of a two-level gallery with 78 shops and a food court, providing a total of 26,500 sqm GLA plus 900 parking spaces. It is anchored by a Tesco hypermarket.

Union Investment has sold the 18,000 sqm office property Krisztina Palace in Budapest. The property was acquired in 2008 as a development project and has been part of the portfolio of the open-end real estate fund Unilmmo: Global ever since. The property has been purchased by the Erste Open-Ended Real Estate Investment Fund, managed by Erste Asset Management, the asset management arm of Erste Group. CBRE brokered the transaction and the legal firm CMS provided legal advice. 

Over 722,200 sqm of office space is currently under construction across Warsaw, but despite such a high level of new supply, the market remains healthy which is proved by a decreasing vacancy rate and a record high letting activity in H1 2017. Savills summarised the first half of the year on Warsaw’s office market.