A long-vacant iconic building on Almássy Square in District 7 of Budapest, which previously housed a leisure centre, will be transformed into a 135-room hotel, Építészfórum reports.

Savills Investment Management, the international real estate investment manager, transacted more than €3.4 billion globally in 2021, including c. €2.6 billion in Europe and c. €670 million in Asia. Globally, transactions included around €2.1 billion of acquisitions and around €1.2 billion of disposals, resulting in a net investment of c. €900 million. The firm now manages approximately €24.8 billion in assets under management (AuM) as of September 2021

CTP has completed the takeover and delisting offer for Deutsche Industrie REIT-AG (DIR), which provides immediate scale in Europe’s largest economy. Germany now represents about 15% of CTP’s portfolio and becomes its third-largest market by gross asset value after the Czech Republic (42%) and Romania (21%).

Romanian Vox Property Group has secured a loan of €10.5 million from CEC Bank that will be used for the completion of Vox Vertical Village luxury residential project in Timișoara. 

The Q4 2021 results of the RICS Global Commercial Property Monitor indicate a continued improvement in market sentiment across Europe compared to the previous quarters, with progress particularly evident on the investment side of the market. That said, conditions remain polarised at the sector level, with the latest feedback still signalling a challenging set of circumstances for retail while industrials continue to post robust expectations for the twelve months ahead.

AFI Europe has taken stock of the results for 2021, a year in which it has been fully committed to implementing its new corporate strategy focused exclusively on rental housing. The company is currently constructing four buildings in three residential projects in Prague. It plans to complete the larger part of them this year.

Due to COVID restrictions, hotel occupancy in Prague dropped down into the last positions among 35 metropolises in Europe. Nevertheless, for hotel operators, Prague is still the most attractive city in the CEE region. According to top market players, the sector should recover by 2024, says the latest Cushman & Wakefield report.

Hilton decided to open six new DoubleTree by Hilton hotels in Europe, including two in CEE: one in Budapest and one in Brasov.

Food retailer SPAR will expand its logistics centre in Czeladź. The facility at MLP Czeladź will be placed in service later this year. Currently, SPAR occupies an area of 8,800 sqm used as a warehouse, cold and freezing rooms, office and staff amenity space. The SPAR logistics centre will be expanded by another 11,200 sqm, the vast majority of which will be used for warehousing, cold storage and freezing purposes. An additional facility will be dedicated to a modern office, which will be expanded by 250 sqm. This phase is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2022.

2021 in the residential market in Poland was marked by a deepening imbalance between supply and demand. Developers put up for sale 11,000 fewer units than they sold. Buyers considered flats mainly as a safe capital investment. Had it not been for the pandemic, the slowdown that awaits the Polish residential market in 2022 would have arrived much earlier.