Susanne Steinböck, Group Head of Corporate Communications and Sustainability at CA Immo talked to Property Forum about the current state of affairs in the European office market, its attractiveness and energy-related challenges it has to face in the nearest future.

As part of its value-creating growth strategy with a focus on high-return properties, Immofinanz is acquiring 53 retail properties in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary from its majority shareholder CPI Property Group (CPIPG). The acquired portfolio has roughly 217,000 sqm of rentable space and is fully let with an occupancy rate of 99%. The purchase price totals €324.2 million. The purchase contract was signed today, together with the closing for 36 retail properties in the Czech Republic and Poland which have 108,000 sqm of rentable space. The purchase price of €191 million for those properties was financed from existing funds. The closing for the remaining 17 properties in Hungary and Slovakia is expected to take place by the end of this year.

GLP announces the lease of a 40,000 sqm facility at GLP Wroclaw V Logistics Centre to SHEIN, a global e-commerce company. The new facility will open by the end of the year and serve as its Central and Eastern European distribution hub.

Property Forum spoke with Stefan Walter, Member of the Board of Directors at RSM International and Managing Partner of RSM Austria and Onno Adriaansens, Co-Chair of the RSM European Real Estate Group and Head of the Real Estate Desk at RSM Netherlands, about the consultancy’s focus on CEE markets and property investment trends in the region.

The developer Sekyra Group must pay the city of Prague more than half a billion crowns (€22 million) for the construction of public spaces in its new residential project on Prague's Rohanský island, according to new rules for private investors. This is the highest contribution a developer has ever had to pay to the capital so far, Seznamzpravy.cz reports.  

Panattoni has sold a BTS facility developed in Stargard, Northwestern Poland that will be used by TEDi. The 87,000 sqm building was purchased for €53 million by a German investor, based in Dortmund.

British company Hyperoptic has leased 5,000 square meters in the BIGZ business centre, in a transaction brokered by Coreside Savills.

The office leasing market in Romania has recorded a fall of 18% in gross take up in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period of last year, although Bucharest has seen a slight increase, according to a report by real estate consultancy JLL Romania.

Former Czech Prime Minister and billionaire Andrej Babiš, who is now facing trial for misuse of EU subsidies, is buying residential land in Slovenia. He has bought a plot of land in the centre of Ljubljana with his investment fund Hartenberg and the Slovak developer Corwin, where up to 400 flats can be built. The transaction, worth an estimated €25 million, would make Andrej Babiš one of the major players on the Slovenian real estate market, reported the investigative server Necenzurirano.si, quoted by the Czech daily E15.cz.

Horia Ciorcilă, one of the founders of Banca Transilvania, Romania’s biggest lender by assets and Evergent Investments are jointly planning the development of a residential project in northern Bucharest.