Péter Számely, Head of Real Estate Finance Department at Austrian mortgage bank HYPO NOE talked to Property Forum about the funding of COVID-resistant property assets and the growth potential of markets in Central and Eastern Europe.

Total commercial property investment volumes climbed to €426 million in the Czech Republic during the second quarter of 2021, according to Savills latest research. This represents a 42% increase compared to the same period last year and a 47% increase in investment activity compared to the previous quarter.

According to “Office Occupier: Office Market in Warsaw”, a report published by real estate advisory firm Cresa Poland, total leasing volume reached close to 249,300 sqm in the first half of 2021, accounting for 32.1% of the annual average for 2015-2020.

Polish developer 7R has brought into use the tenth warehouse building in 7R Park Kraków in Kokotów on the south-eastern outskirts of the city. It is the largest complex in the company`s portfolio with more than 213,000 sqm GLA.

BBI Development and Liebrecht & Wood have started the process for selling their city-forming Centrum Praskie Koneser redevelopment project in Warsaw’s Praga district.

Lease transactions in Q2 2021 on Bratislava’s office market reached 37,000 sqm, representing a 19% increase year-on-year. Bratislava Research Forum announced the office market figures for Q2 2021.

Colliers sold a 30,000 sqm industrial complex as part of a 9 ha site in Nemesvámos, near Veszprém, to the Austrian automation company Knapp. The seller MTD Hungary, a lawnmower producer, closed the factory in 2020 as they decided to centralise the production somewhere else and asked Colliers to put the property on the market for sale.

Romanian developer One United Properties has secured €78 million in fresh funding from a group of banks for the office component of One Cotroceni Park in Bucharest. 

Gross take-up on the Prague office market in Q2 2021 amounted to 89,300 sqm, representing a 5% decrease on the previous quarter but a 10% increase in a year-on-year comparison. The Prague Research Forum has published the office market figures for the past quarter.

The lowest amount of office space under construction in Warsaw since 2010 may point to a supply gap in 2023, according to JLL’s market summary for H1 2021.