The Czech retail market and physical retail segment remain attractive for retail brands, as the arrival of 38 new international brands last year confirms: this is the highest number in the last three years. This means a 52% year-on-year increase over the 25 new brands arriving in 2020, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Sales of lands, homes and apartments in Romania rose by a yearly rate of 16% to 698,756 units in 2021, with a peak of 74,429 transactions recorded in December, according to the National Agency for Cadastre and Real Estate Publicity (ANCPI). 

Griffes ended 2021 with a significant office leasing surge, placing the agency as the second best performing real estate player in the intermediated office leasing segment in Romania. The achievement tops Griffes’ 5 years of activity on the Romanian real estate landscape which the company celebrated at the end of the year. The team extended significantly its activities throughout 2021, growing into land sales and industrial leasing by marketing a large-scale project to be developed next to Budapest Airport in Hungary.

AFI Europe has completed the rough construction of an apartment building in the newly built AFI City district in Prague 9 - Vysočany. A total of 640 apartments are being built on a brownfield site near the Kolbenova metro station, exclusively for rental housing in two separate buildings, which will also include commercial space for shops, services and a restaurant. The construction of the first of them, with 313 units, has just moved towards completion and is successfully heading towards completion in Q4 2022.

Total investments in commercial real estate in Slovakia in 2021 exceeded €750 million which exceeded the volume of investments in the pre-crisis year 2019. Prime yields decreased over the past year, confirming the attractiveness of investing in the commercial real estate market in Slovakia, says Cushman & Wakefield.

Castorama, Poland's largest chain of home improvement stores, selling construction and finishing products online and in 90 brick and mortar stores across the country, will move to 7R Park Łódź East I. The total area that the tenant will occupy is more than 36,000 sqm. In the lease process, Castorama was advised by JLL.

The volume of land transactions for commercial and residential projects totaled €800 million in 2021, which is a 15-year high, according to real estate consultancy Colliers. Retailers and residential developers have generated roughly 90% of the deals. 

Property developer Speedwell has signed a top up financing agreement with Garanti BBVA to back the construction of the second building of The Ivy residential project in Bucharest, taking the overall loan deal to €15 million.

In early December 2021, S Immo announced a partial takeover to the shareholders of Immofinanz, only three days after a similar offer was made by CPI Property Group. Today, the Executive Board, Supervisory Board and Works Council of Immofinanz have issued statements in which they indicate that the offer price of €23.00 per share is viewed as not sufficiently attractive. The Executive Board and Supervisory Board, therefore, recommend that shareholders not accept the partial offer by S Immo for approximately 10% of the outstanding Immofinanz shares.

Garbe Institutional Capital has launched a pan-European residential real estate fund with a total target investment volume (GAV) of around €800 million. The Garbe European Residential Fund (Garbe EUResi) invests in real estate developments and selectively also in properties undergoing energy rehabilitation. The investment strategy follows a "boots on the ground" approach: the fund only invests in locations where Garbe can act as a local investor through a local presence. The fund’s launch is a milestone in Garbe Institutional Capital’s move to expand into a European residential real estate platform. Garbe EUResi has already received equity commitments of €82.5 million.