The Environment component in ESG is attracting the largest share of investments made by property players, as sustainable buildings have a better position in the market, concluded speakers in the ESG panel at SEE Property Forum 2022, held in Bucharest.

In the first quarter, second-hand home prices increased by 8.9%, and new ones by 6.6%. As for the second quarter, the figures were 6.3% and 3.3%, respectively, the Central Statistics Office reports. 

Romania's industrial market continued to perform impressively in Q3 2022, with gross demand reaching a record high of around 408,700 sqm, from 188,400 sqm in Q2 and 129,000 sqm in the same period of last year, according to real estate consultancy JLL Romania. 

According to a survey conducted by Savills involving real estate investors with total EME assets under management exceeding €500 billion, European multifamily, big box logistics, urban logistics, CBD offices and student housing are the top five sectors that investors are looking to invest in over the next 12 months.

Property developer and investor Prime Kapital has unveiled plans for an urban regeneration project in Cluj-Napoca, on a land plot of 17.1 hectares that previously hosted an industrial platform. 

HANN Development, owned by Turkish businessperson Bahri Büyükhanlı in association with Emre Büyükhanlı, has recently received the building permit for a residential project in a locality near northern Bucharest. 

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH has sold two centrally located fully-let residential and student housing assets in Warsaw and Kraków in Poland to institutional investors in Austria and the Netherlands for more than €60 million on behalf of Munich-headquartered AIFM platform Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG).

Office leasing across the country totaled 108,747 sqm in Q3, up 9% compared to the same period of last year, with Bucharest, Iași and Cluj-Napoca recording the biggest volume of transactions, according to real estate consultancy Fortim Trusted Advisors. 

Immofinanz has successfully completed the sale of additional office properties. Two office buildings in Vienna were sold to the Austrian Winegg Group for an attractive market price of approximately €60 million. These two properties have 7,000 sqm of space in total and are occupied by long-term tenants.

We can see more interest coming from government entities to rent office space in modern office buildings in CEE. We also see large companies centralising their office spaces in a single building. Property Forum asked Tomasz Lisiecki, CEO of TriGranit about his assessment of these trends.