Yitzhak Hagag, Co-Founder and Shareholder of Hagag Development Europe, talked to Property Forum about the expansion of the company's €300 million portfolio focused on residential and offices in Bucharest and the development plans for the emerging hotel division. The developer is looking to increase its presence across Romania and plans to expand in other European markets in the long term.

The listing value of commercial real estate properties such as shopping malls, office buildings and logistics centres could grow in the short and medium-term in Romania. The increase will be recorded in a volatile context generated by rising building material and utility prices, increasing inflation, as well as the border conflict and the effects of the pandemic, according to Colliers.

CEE-based flex office provider New Work has opened a new location in Prague. New Work Smichov Business Park offers fully furbished office space with up to 245 workstations in one of Prague’s most lively areas, with many offices and an outside terrace overlooking the Vyšehrad castle as well as beautiful green areas along the Vltava River.

IHG continues the expansion of its luxury & lifestyle growth in Europe with InterContinental Tirana set to open in 2025.

Development company Antracit is launching a series of projects in several cities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is preparing a mixed-use rental project in Ostrava, an office and apartment project and a rental project in Pilsen. A mixed-use rental project is also being prepared in Žilina and another rental project in an industrial area in Prešov, the company announced. 

Solida Capital and Xior have formed a joint venture in Poland to jointly develop student housing projects. The first investment will be a student dormitory located in the Old Town area of the capital, close to the University of Warsaw campus.

This year CA Immo has already closed 18 lease transactions in total in Prague. These are mostly new leases and expansions with an office space of almost 16,200 sqm. Also, both new office buildings Mississippi House and Missouri Park, which have been completed in summer of 2021, are fully let now.  

What does the future hold for offices? A group of experts, that took part in the first edition of our European ESG Property Forum, claim that the whole industry is switching to remote work and smaller offices located closer to employees` homes. The event was held by Property Forum on June 1st in Warsaw.

The year 2021 has recorded over 65,000 sqm of the space in newly completed retail parks. This is the highest growth of the retail space in the Czech Republic in five years. Behind this success, there is mainly the stable interest among shoppers, long-term lease contracts and tenant expansion as also a surge of interest among investors. Nevertheless, the higher costs are now slowing the construction of the new retail parks. Therefore, a boost in the demand for space and likely push up rents as well are expected, states Cushman & Wakefield in their last report.

Hungarian investor Indotek Group has purchased the One Victoriei Center office building in central Bucharest as part of its expansion strategy for an undisclosed sum.