pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, Helaba and ING Bank have jointly underwritten an investment facility, totalling €163.6 million, to refinance Karolinka, Pogoria and Platan Shopping Centres in Poland. The assets are owned by Rockcastle Global Real Estate Company Limited. The transaction closed in September 2016. pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, Helaba and ING Bank are acting as Joint Lead Arrangers providing equal portions of the funding, with pbb acting as facility and security agent of the transaction. 

Ericsson’s new Hungarian headquarters are being built on a site overlooking the Danube by Wing Zrt. This investment is the first phase of the Hungarian Nobel Prize Winners Research & Development Park. The building, which has a total area of 24,000 square meters, will house the company’s largest research and development facility outside Sweden. The building will be constructed to the strict standards of the LEED Gold environmental awareness rating. 

The operating results recorded by Immofinanz were stable in year-on-year comparison at EUR 45.3 million in the first quarter of the abbreviated 2016 financial year (Q1 2015/16: EUR 46.9 million). Rental income fell from EUR 82.2 million to EUR 76.8 million due to temporary rent reductions in Moscow and the planned sale of properties. 

The newly refurbished Buda Loft Offices has welcomed its first tenant, TransferWise. The building opened its doors officially in July, and offers 5 floors with an approximate total of 2,500 sqm for lease. Colliers International Hungary has been appointed as the exclusive leasing agent.

Tristan Capital Partners, a pan-European real estate investment fund, has announced three new lease agreements in their recently refurbished Praha City Center office building. The new tenants are leasing a combined 3,000 square metres of the 16,000 square metre property.

Brexit has proven that nothing is certain, but at this point it seems that the divorce of the UK and EU won’t have much of an impact on Central and Eastern European property markets. Over 300 visitors and 70 speakers came together in Vienna to discuss the most pressing issues concerning the CEE property industry. We report from CEE Property Forum 2016, co-organised by Portfolio Property Forum and RICS. 

CA Immo has signed a sales and purchase agreement to acquire the Millennium Towers Class A office complex comprising of 70,400 sqm GLA in Budapest, Hungary. The transaction volume of the fully rented asset amounts to €175 million, the annual rental income reaches €12 million. 

International investor and developer CTP has welcomed Peter Würsching MRICS as Country Manager for Hungary. Peter is responsible for the development of the company’s growing operations in Hungary.

According to the latest report by Colliers International, during the first half of 2016, some 12,000 square metres of modern office space were completed in Prague. An additional 20,300 square metres is expected to follow during the second half, which will lead to 2016 being the “leanest” year in terms of development completions since 1992, with a total of only 32,300 square metres of completed offices.

At the end of H1 2016, Poland’s office stock totalled 8.7 million sqm. Warsaw remains the largest office market with Kraków, Wrocław and Tricity becoming major regional office hubs. Nearly 572,000 sqm of modern office space was delivered onto the Polish market in H1 2016, setting a new semi-annual record. Cushman & Wakefield its newest report, Property Times: Office Market In A Growth Phase.