In March 2023, the Delta Planet Mall retail centre, located in Varna, Bulgaria, inaugurated an innovative photovoltaic solar installation. The investment of nearly €500,000 (BGN 1 million) covers the construction of 1,029 solar panels with a total capacity of 556 kW.

With a €10 million investment, M Core has made another commitment to its portfolio in Poland through the announcement of the Świdnik M Park development. At 7,700 ssqm, the retail park will be the largest development for M Core in Poland and the first created under the M Park brand, built by LCP Properties — one of the five property entities that sits under the M Core umbrella.

High inflation brings something that has not been seen in Czechia for a long time - a halt in the growth of residential property prices, especially flats. Prices of older flats are even falling. Frozen demand will soon hit construction companies. The housing market has slowed down considerably, and players are waiting for further economic development, says David Frič from STEM/MARK (the Euroconstruct member institute in Czechia).

Immofinanz is taking another important step in optimising its portfolio by selling an office property in Vienna. The Bureau am Belvedere building, with nearly 9,000 sqm of space, was sold to an Austrian investor.

Moje Miejsce II, which is the second office building of Echo Investment’s multifunctional project in Warsaw, was acquired by Trigea Real Estate Fund. The project is fully leased to tenants such as Tchibo or NetWorks and has been awarded BREEAM environmental certificate with an 'Excellent' rating. The transaction amounted to nearly €45 million.

Newport Logistics Fund II, a fund investing in full cycle related to the development of warehouses in Europe, was established in Luxembourg as an investment company. The second fund is looking to raise €100 million for further investments in Western Europe.

Mitiska REIM has announced on behalf of the MEREP 3 fund the acquisition of Europa Centralna, a retail center covering a gross leasable area (GLA) of 67,000 sqm located on a 27ha land plot in Gliwice, Poland. The price has not been disclosed.

Trei Real Estate GmbH just opened another two retail parks of its Vendo Park brand in Poland. The properties are located in Zambrów (Podlaskie Voivodeship) and in Kraków (Lesser Poland Voivodeship). The investment volume adds up to c. €16.4 million. The two retail parks have a combined lettable area of around 11,000 square meters.

After the start of the pandemic in 2020, and its surge in 2021, the past 12 months have brought renewed market activity in an attempt to offset the previous slowdown. The retail sector, construction, and the IT sector managed to avoid the recession and maintain their position as the least affected industries by the pandemic. The investment market in Bulgaria for the second half of 2022 recorded twice as high activity in terms of volume as in H1 2022, according to the Sofia City Report by JLL with the support of IPC Partners Bulgaria and Avalant. Foreign investors are less cautious to expand to unload their cash given the limited amount of opportunities.

Immofinanz Group delivered very good operating performance in 2022 in spite of the challenging environment. Sustainable FFO 1 from the standing investment business rose by 21.7%. Rental income increased by 5.4% to €300.2 million and the results of asset management by 7.2% to €226.1 million. The Group also has a very solid capital base with an equity ratio of 47.9% and conservative debt with a net LTV of 40.7%.