UBM Development Czechia has launched the construction and sale of Timber Prague apartments. The first wooden multi-storey apartment buildings in modern history are being built in Prague. Timber Praha is being developed within the Arcus City residential complex and offers 62 apartment units in modern multi-storey wooden buildings made of solid wood panels, UBM announced.

During the first quarter of 2023, the volume of investment in commercial real estate exceeded €477 million, a result that far exceeded initial expectations. The reason for these positive figures is a single large transaction into the retail property portfolio, which accounts for the majority of the total quarterly investment volume. This transaction is the reason why most of the funds in the past quarter went to the retail segment. Domestic investors were the most active last quarter, accounting for an unprecedented 87% of the total, according to Knight Frank's analysis of the Czech commercial real estate market.

Codic Hungary, a subsidiary of the Belgian developer Codic International, has launched its new office project called Modiano in downtown Budapest. It will offer 13,500 sqm of office space with 450 sqm of retail and the handover is scheduled for Q4 2025.

Three new members of staff have joined the Hungarian team of Panattoni, the European industrial real estate developer. Róbert Koncz is in charge of real estate operations, Péter Farkas of technical project management and Tamás Szűcs of land acquisition.

Echo Investment's residential business will be integrated into Archicom in order to create a nationwide developer with bigger growth potential, synergies and a wider market presence. The change will clarify the structure of the Group, where Archicom will be the residential part and Echo Investment will focus on growing the commercial and PRS segments, as well as on creating mixed-use ‘destination’ projects.

Regesta S.A., a logistics services provider, has leased nearly 36,000 sqm in Panattoni Park Tricity East V. Its new facility will enable it to cooperate with the nearby seaport, offer container handling in the Baltic Hub and the BCT, and expand its sea transport services. The tenant was represented during the transaction process by the real estate advisory firm Newmark Polska.

According to the latest report from Cushman & Wakefield, the Polish retail market got off to a flying start in 2023, with over 100,000 sqm of new retail space coming on stream in the first quarter of the year and a number of new openings expected to deliver a total of 300,000 sqm. The biggest single challenge facing both retail tenants and landlords is high inflation which has resulted in falling sales for some shopping categories.

Ukraine’s logistics real estate segment has suffered significant losses and destruction since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Russia targeted warehouses and about 500 thousand square meters of warehouse space was destroyed during the attack on the capital in the Kyiv region. Iryna Nastych summarised the situation in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

Logicor continues expanding in the Czech Republic when it acquired a 100,000 sqm brownfield close to Prague, further strengthening its presence in this crucial market and nearly doubling its footprint.

According to Savills' latest European logistics outlook, the take-up of industrial and logistics space across the continent totalled 37.5 million sqm in 2022. Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, this signifies a fall of only 6% on 2021’s total of 40.2 million sqm, which was a record high for the sector.