Higher construction costs and the unfavourable economic situation in Europe are impacting the future development of new offices in the region, especially in capital cities like Prague, Bratislava, Budapest and Bucharest.

Panattoni has completed a three-building complex in Radzymin for Poczta Polska. The development is to play a key role in the implementation of one of the operator’s strategic initiatives, its Logistics Network Architecture (LNA) project. Within the 50,000 sqm logistics centre is to operate a sorter capable of handling over 15,000 packages an hour.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank has provided a €113 million investment loan facility to CTP, which will be drawn down in phases. CTP will utilise the proceeds for the refinancing of a logistics portfolio in the Czech Republic. pbb acted as arranger and sole lender under the facility.

A new Mercure hotel comprising 121 rooms has opened in Sibiu, which will operate under a 10-year management contract between Accor and local investor Compa Sibiu.

Romanian investment company Meta Estate Trust has entered into a partnership for the development of a premium boutique residential project in Bucharest. The company will invest €1.4 million in the project comprising 21 apartments that will be completed within the next 12 months.

Studio A - Skanska’s latest investment in Warsaw - will contribute 26,600 sqm of office space to the local office market. The building is scheduled to be commissioned in 2025.

Cushman & Wakefield has released a new report on the student housing market in Poland. Supply of public and private halls of residence fails to keep pace with growing demand. In addition, halls of residence remain very popular among students in Poland despite rising rental rates, which in turn is making the PBSA (Purpose-Built Student Accommodation) sector attractive to international investors.

Prime yields for apartment blocks, which move in the opposite direction to prices, continue to rise across Europe and stood at 4.35% in Q3 2023, 38 basis points higher than in the first quarter this year, according to research by Catella Group.

Over the past decade, Hungarian real estate investors have successfully expanded outside of their home market. Firms such as Wing, Futureal, Adventum, Indotek and others have become major players in many European countries, mainly Poland and Romania. They managed to expand via acquisitions of both companies and projects. Part of their funds came from bond issues in Hungary within the Bond Funding for Growth Scheme of the National Bank of Hungary. We have prepared a timeline of the notable transactions and an overview of the market’s key players to provide a better understanding of this trend.

The Ostrava-based construction company HSF System has formed a holding structure that includes a total of 26 companies. The new holding company, with sales exceeding CZK 3 billion (€122.2 million), is called Purposia Group. The main reasons for establishing the holding company are to increase efficiency and further expansion plans, HSF System announced.