GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, has completed the purchase of P3, one of the leading pan-European owners, developers and managers of logistics properties, from TPG Real Estate and Ivanhoé Cambridge. The deal, which values the business at €2.4 billion, was first announced in November 2016, but had to be approved by EU regulators before it could be finalised. It is one of the largest European real estate transactions of 2016.

TPG Real Estate, the real estate platform of global private investment firm TPG, announced that it has completed the purchase of A&O Hotels and Hostels, the largest fully integrated, privately-owned, hostel platform in Europe. The transaction will help A&O expand and enhance its operations.

Arcona Capital has entered into a long-term lease agreement with Knorr-Bremse Group to lease a total of 2,700 square meters of office space in the administrative building in the city centre of Liberec. The building will then be fully occupied. Arcona Capital, manager of property portfolios in Central Europe, owns nearly 60 commercial properties in the Czech Republic.

The number of transactions on the Hungarian housing market totalled 128,386 last year, down by about 5% compared to 2015. This, however, is not a sign of a weak market, as it rather reflects an upturn in the sector for new homes. Buyers have been signing a huge number of pre-contracts directly with the developers and that will appear in the statistics only when the properties are taken into use, i.e. in about one or two years.

Hotel capacities in Hungary will grow by approximately 2,000 rooms over the next two years, which corresponds to 4,000 new hotel beds, so Hungary and in particular Budapest will be prepared to meet the tourism challenges of coming years, according to KPMG's latest analysis. 

Real Estate Central Europe Group has finalised its sale of eight retail and service schemes totalling more than 16,000 sqm to Dutch investment fund Arcona Property Fund. Cushman & Wakefield represented the vendor in the transaction.

During Q4 2016 the total commercial real estate investment transaction volume reached some €270 million in Hungary, pushing the 2016 volume to above €1.7 billion, the highest annual figure since 2007– according to JLL Hungary’s latest preliminary statistics. According to JLL Hungary’s preliminary statistics office transactions generated roughly 48% of the annual investment volumes, followed by retail (27%) and logistics (14%). Hungarian investors generated the highest share of the annual volumes (30%) followed by US-based (20%) and German (14%) investors.

Skanska has sold Westin Warsaw, a five star hotel in Warsaw, Poland, to Al Sraiya Holding Group. The value of the transaction is €56 million and the sale was recorded by Skanska Commercial Development Europe in the fourth quarter of 2016. The transaction is expected to be closed in the first quarter of 2017.

Echo Investment has agreed to sell the former Cracovia hotel building in Krakow to Poland’s Ministry of Culture. In the future, the new owner plans to use the site as a location for a gallery of design and architecture.

Echo Polska Properties (EPP) and Echo Investment concluded final agreements concerning a joint purchase and development of a mixed-use project at 22 Towarowa Street in Warsaw. The property with an area of 6.5-ha is located in a rapidly developing part of the capital city and it is the largest commercial plot in the city centre.