Warsaw’s Municipal Office has leased 12,000 square metres in the recently completed Widok Towers in Warsaw. The Technical City Hall will occupy ten of the total of 28 stories in the future. The high-rise complex, which was developed by Austria’s S+B Gruppe, has been owned by the Commerz Real open-ended real estate fund hausInvest since 2014.

Awaiting the reopening of shops and service outlets to go shopping at traditional brick-and-mortar stores, positive footfall results achieved by most shopping centres in May, the opening of a second Primark store with a third one in the pipeline, plus a strong debut of a new Polish off-price concept – these are some of the key news and developments to have taken place in the retail sector in Q2 2021, according to BNP Paribas Real Estate.

Hannes Wimmer, Executive Director, Loan Syndication at Erste Group Bank AG talked to Property Forum about the segments driving the property investment market and the funding focus of banks on sustainable projects. He reveals that compared to Western Europe, the CEE region is lagging a bit when it comes to financing sustainable projects, but big changes can be expected during the next 6 to 12 months.

Romanian proptech startup Bright Spaces has raised €1.5 million to continue the development of its digital leasing solution for commercial real estate. 

MLP Group has just contracted W.P.I.P. of Poznań to further expand its MLP Poznań West project in Dąbrówka. The general contractor is to build over 43,000 sqm of new space, with the construction works due to commence still in July.

CBRE acted as an advisor to Patria Investiční společnost in the acquisition of a portfolio of two retail parks for the newly established Patria Logistics and Retail Fund from the Czech development group KPD. The two assets are the Ovčáry Retail Park in Kolín with a retail area of ​​8,950 square meters and tenants such as Lidl, Sinsay, Teta, Pepco, Tedi and Deichmann, and the Mohelnice Retail Park with an area of ​​approximately 2,750 square meters and long-term tenants, which are Mountfield and Jysk.

Wing and RTL Services Kft., a business services company of Magyar RTL Televízió Zrt., have signed a long-term lease agreement involving the soon to be renovated Liget Center and Liget Auditorium office buildings. RTL Hungary’s head office and news studios will relocate to this nearly 9,000 sqm complex in a historic environment opposite City Park in 2024, after the renovation of the heritage buildings in a development fully tailored to the tenant’s needs.

Colliers introduced its latest research report about the post-COVID workplace as a continuation of its research after the report it produced a year ago leveraging data from over 5,000 respondents globally, evaluating the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the way we work.

Polish developer Scallier has purchased a retail project in Timișoara from Oasis Group for an undisclosed sum. 

Since 2007, when the European Investment Bank (EIB) issued the world's first Climate Action Bond (CAB), green bonds have evolved from a marketing tool into one of the fastest-growing investment vehicles. This trend is also visible in the real estate market and is expected only to strengthen, according to Colliers.