Investment into Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries (excluding Russia) for H1 2016 registered a substantial increase (59%) compared to same period of last year, surpassing €5 billion. Expectations are that for the entire year, investment volumes will reach and exceed the record volumes of 2015 with all CEE countries expected to perform strongly, says CBRE.

XL Catlin has signed a lease agreement for office space at UBM’s PEGAZ complex in Wrocław. The tenant was represented by Cushman & Wakefield.

International real estate advisor Savills, on behalf of Aviva Investors has sold a Small Business Unit type warehouse and a 3.5 ha development land situated in Łódź Business Park. The buyer was industrial developer Panattoni Europe. 

Prologis has announced its second quarter activity in Central and Eastern Europe. The company leased more than 400,000 square metres of distribution space, an increase of more than 7 percent over the same period last year. Demand continues to be driven by reconfiguration of the supply chain and e-commerce.

Robust commercial real estate investment activity continued in Q2 2016 across the core Central European markets and reached EUR 2.6 billion, a 56% increase on Q1, according to Cushman & Wakefield. This has pushed volumes over the last twelve months to EUR 9.3 billion, close to 2007 record levels. 

Deutsche Hypothekenbank is acting as the sole lender to a real estate company, which is managed on behalf of four independent investors by Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH, for the purchase of the Prime Corporate Center office building in Warsaw. The financing volume amounts to € 40.5 million. In addition to this long-term investment financing, Deutsche Hypo is also providing a short-term bridging loan to cover the VAT element in the amount of € 14.2 million.

At the end of the H1 the total supply in the nine major markets in Poland reached 8.6 million sqm. Developers completed a record amount of modern office space – almost 572,000 sqm. Over 1.4 million sqm of office space is under construction and the capital accounts for 609,000 sqm of new offices. The vacancy rate for Poland is 13.4 percent according to Colliers’ report „Market insights | Office market H1 2016“.

Gross take-up on the Czech Republic industrial market reached 349,300 sqm showing an increase of 11% on the Q1 2016 figures. The Industrial Research Forum has announced its final industrial market figures for Q2 2016.

The Bulgarian investment market saw a number of positive developments during the first half of 2016, according to the latest Colliers’ report. Part of the good news is that for the first time since 2012, income-generating transactions prevailed (85%) over speculative (15%).

Immofinanz has completed the purchase of 25,690,163 bearer shares (representing an investment of approx. 26%) of CA Immobilien Anlagen AG from Terim Limited (Cyprus) and four registered shares of CA Immo from O1 Group Limited (Cyprus). The closing took place today, on Tuesday, 2 August 2016. The purchase price for the package totals approx. EUR 604 million.