The first 3 quarters of 2020 across the CEE-6 have seen a 37.5% decrease (year-on-year) in overall office investment volumes. With positive news of vaccines due for deployment early in the new year, offices volumes are expected to rebound in 2021 according to a new report by Colliers International.

Local developer SDC Imobiliare, along with overseas investment funds, has launched what they claim to be the biggest real estate project in Romania. The Transilvania Smart City mixed-use, estimated to require an investment of €700 million, would see the construction of 10,000 apartments, a shopping centre, schools, supermarkets, a hotel and an aparthotel, office space, parks, and conference rooms in Cluj-Napoca. Work on the project is set to start in January 2021.

Building construction markets of the Balkan EECFA countries as a whole have shown resistance during the pandemic so far. Nonetheless, the region is foreseen to have yet another negative year in 2021, before expansion can return in 2022. The EECFA (Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association) has released its Construction Forecast Report for winter 2020.

City Park Hostivař in Prague 10 has been acquired by a Western European investment company, represented by BNP Paribas Real Estate. The name of the buyer and the purchase price has not been disclosed.

2020 has been dominated on the commercial real estate market in Poland by the pandemic, whose impact varied from sector to sector though. The pandemic has, however, given rise to or accelerated a number of developments, some of which are likely to stay with us for longer. Real estate advisory firm Savills explores future trends in its preliminary summary of 2020 and its outlook for the next 12 months.

Developed by Wing, the brand-new headquarters building of evosoft Hungary Kft., a Siemens subsidiary, was completed on time and tailored fully to the tenant’s needs. Located at the Buda end of the Rákóczi Bridge, the 22,000 sqm complex was completed as part of the second phase of the Hungarian Nobel Prize Winners R&D Park. The building, home to a six-storey research and development facility, is equipped with cutting-edge technology and meets Gold-level environmental friendliness and energy efficiency LEED certification criteria. Evosoft is expected to begin moving into the building in December 2020.

The overall volume of transactions in the commercial property sector in the Czech Republic should reach €1.2 billion this year. This means a 63% decrease compared with last year, which in turn was more successful than average. Considering the complications that the coronavirus pandemic caused to the economy, such a result is quite satisfactory and attests to the lasting investor appetite. In addition, an increase to almost twice this year’s volume can be expected next year. The fact that real estate prices remain stable is also positive.

S Immo AG has purchased two properties of the Campus 6 business park in Bucharest from developer Skanska with a total investment volume of €97 million. The two buildings have a total leasable area of nearly 38,000 square metres and both are fully let. Key tenants are Microsoft and Société Générale.

A new railway line connecting Bucharest’s main railway station Gara de Nord to the Henri Coanda International Airport has been inaugurated over the weekend. Trains depart every 40 minutes with a one-way trip taking about 20 minutes. The price of a one-way ticket is RON 4 (around €0.82).

After a year serving as a Non-Executive Director at 7R, Chris Zeuner has been appointed Chief Investment Officer and board member of the company. In his new role, effective from January 1st, he will be responsible for 7R’s further expansion which includes plans to enter new European markets