Total leasing activity throughout 2020 on the Budapest industrial/logistics market amounted to 537,900 sqm, marking a 29% increase from the previous year and the second-highest annual volume on record. The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial/logistics market analysis.

Savills Investment Management (Savills IM) transacted more than €2.5 billion globally in 2020, including c. €2.1 billion in Europe and c. €2457 million in Asia. Globally, transactions included nearly €1.7 billion of acquisitions and €833 million of disposals, resulting in a net investment of €842 million. The firm now manages approximately €21.2 billion (over USD 25 billion) in assets under management (AuM), a company record.

Panattoni has announced another project in Wielkopolska. Panattoni Park Poznań East Gate is to be built on a 10 ha plot in the administrative district of Swarzędz near Poznań. This will be Panattoni’s first park to the east of Poznań. Construction work is starting in the second quarter of the year.

Vastint Poland has sold the Brama Portowa office building complex in Szczecin. The new owner is FLE SICAV FIS managed by FLE GmbH from Vienna. The price has not been disclosed. Vastint was supported in the sale process by experts from Knight Frank’s Capital Markets department.

More than a third (36.5%) of Romanian employees believe that the entire team within the company they are working for will return to the office this year, a recent survey initiated by Genesis Property shows. 

On behalf of a German client, JLL’s Industrial Agency and Capital Markets Teams cooperated to sell the real estate component for a unique medical production operation in the Central Bohemian region of the Czech Republic in a 10-year sale & leaseback transaction. The asset also includes over 10,000 sqm of land with development potential.

German-focused investor Aggregate Holdings S.A. confirmed that it may be considering a potential acquisition of a stake in CA Immo, which may also include launching a partial takeover offer for shares in CA Immo in accordance with the provisions of the Austrian Takeover Act.

South African developer Fortress REIT is close to entering the Romanian logistics market by acquiring the logistic park in Chitila, owned by Element Industrial and Dedeman, according to Ziarul Financiar, which cites market sources.

Globally, there is set to be a 50% surge in investment into commercial real estate in the second half of the year, predicts Colliers International in its new Global Capital Markets 2021 Investor Outlook paper. In EMEA, the momentum continues in the industrial and logistics and living sectors which are less dependent on economic growth. Investors are also particularly interested in core office stock, albeit selectively, with some 32 per cent of respondents looking to invest in the sector.

European logistics real estate markets have not suffered last year from the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to fast-growing e-commerce and higher inventory levels of producers, the total expected take-up in 11 European countries of 23.6 million sqm for 2020 is only 3% down compared with the record year 2019. The forecasts for this year are even better with an expected take-up of 27 million sqm – an increase of 14%. Particularly large logistics real estate markets like Germany, France, the Netherlands and Poland are expected to grow substantially.