Savills has appointed Jaroslav Kaizr as Head of Leasing Agency for the Czech Republic & Slovakia.

Poland continues to attract brands from across Europe. The significance and the share of the Food & Beverage proposition within shopping centers continues to grow. Furthermore, both new retail concepts and mixed-use projects have become increasingly popular as well. JLL presents its summary of the Polish retail market as of the end of Q3 2017.

Corpus Sireo Real Estate has acquired the Oasis Florenc office property in Prague from an international investor. The purchased asset is located near the Vltava river and will now be included in the pan-European DEREIF SICAV-FIS fund. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Focus Estate Fund investment fund acquired Most Retail Park located in Most, Czech Republic, comprising 6,471 sqm of retail space. This is Focus Estate's third investment in European commercial real estate. The investment fund previously bought Ostrava Retail Park (Ostrava, Czech Republic) and Galeria Sandomierz (Sandomierz, Poland).

CBRE won the tender from REICO IS ČS for managing the 13,800 sqm Qubix office building, located in Prague 4, which is certified according to the LEED Platinum methodology.

A scheme from the portfolio of IKEA Centres Polska S.A. will for the first time be managed externally. Centrum Franowo, completed within 15 months and delivered to the market at the end of September this year, comprises 15 000 sqm GLA, out of which 7 500 sqm on level 0 is dedicated to retail and services, while the remaining 7 500 sqm on level +1 will be used for offices.

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%).