The warehouse and logistics space sector in Poland maintained its high growth rate in 2021. The results included, among others, record amounts of new space delivered to the market, a record number of square metres under construction, as well as a record demand. Summing up last year, experts from BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland highlight the influence of e-commerce on the situation of the whole sector, the increasing interest of logisticians, developers and investors in ecological issues. They also point out the bottlenecks such as rising construction costs, difficulties in materials supply, limited land availability and increasing shortage of qualified workers.

S IMMO has recently made major commitments towards building a fully ESG-compliant office portfolio in Budapest with a large acquisition and an ambitious green energy initiative. Géza Barabas, Country Manager of S IMMO Hungary talked to Property Forum about upcoming investment plans and the company’s ESG strategy for the Hungarian market.

Lidl, the discount grocery chain, plans a store on Prague's Na Příkopě street. It will use the premises of a historic building, the former headquarters of the Czechoslovak Commercial Bank. The grocery store will be located next to the Hamleys toy store. Lidl expects to open a new store in the middle of the year, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reports. Na Příkopě Street ranks around 20th in Cushman & Wakefield's ranking of the world's most expensive streets.  

Property investor Omer Susli has purchased River Plaza Mall in Râmnicu Vâlcea from Sonae Sierra for an undisclosed sum.

LogStar, the industrial division of local investor Biggeorge Property, has acquired the WestGate Business Park, an 18,000 sqm industrial facility, from Logicor. The seller was represented by CBRE. The price of the transaction was not disclosed.

Record levels of investment poured into European residential assets last year, with spending nearly equal to that of office investment, Knight Frank reports. Just shy of €100 billion of assets were traded in the European residential investment sector in 2021, up 60% on 2020, analysis of data from RCA shows.

After delivering 400,000 sqm of warehouse space in 2021, 7R continues to pursue its expansion strategy with 800,000 sqm currently under construction throughout Poland. In Upper Silesia, the company is developing a number of projects including a production and warehouse facility at 7R City Park Katowice I, which will deliver over 49,600 sqm to the market. The project will be ready in Q4 2022.

For the first time in the history of its operations in the Czech Republic, developer YIT has entered into a partnership to finance its project. Local investment group RSJ will participate in the implementation of the residential complex Vesi Hostivař in Prague.

There is a belief that ESG costs money but in fact, the opposite can be true, says Stefan de Goeij, Head of Property Management at Avison Young in the Czech Republic. He talked to Property Forum about compliance, commitment and tackling all the components of ESG in the real estate industry.

Hungarian investment and property management company Indotek Group has launched 16 energy efficiency projects with a total worth of €1.4 million (HUF 500 million) to modernize its shopping centres and office buildings.