Romania's Real Estate Yearbook 2020 has published "The New Normal - Market Pulse Report, Romania", an exclusive property market update on Romania at end of the lockdown.

The industrial real estate sector in Romania will receive a boost thanks to an agreement signed between the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Warehouses De Pauw (WDP). The EBRD will provide WDP with a €150 million senior unsecured loan to support the company’s portfolio expansion in the country.

Banks in Europe are expecting a slow recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while they forecast that hotel and retail loan portfolios will likely be hit more considerably than office and other real estate asset classes, the majority of them believes that the impairment will be in the range of a few percentage points up to 10% in total. These are some of the early findings from the COVID-specific section of this year's edition of KPMG's Property Lending Barometer, due to be published in autumn 2020.

Penta Real Estate has successfully completed the sale of Bory Business Park project to the Karimpol Group development company. The land with a total area of 60,000 sqm is located in the new Bory district in Bratislava and was sold together with a building permit. The project allows the construction of retail space with the possibility of combining showrooms, offices and storage. Both parties have agreed that the transaction value will not be disclosed.

BWI Group, a global automotive suspension parts design and manufacturing company, has moved into a unique passive building in Europe. The group's research and development centre will begin operations in Balice near Kraków, where advanced technologies will be developed to increase the functionality of shock absorbers. The developer, 7R, has prepared an energy self-sufficient facility for the company, using an advanced trigeneration system. The building will obtain a BREEAM Very Good certificate.

The opening of Colosseum Mall in Bucharest, initially planned for the end of 2020, has been rescheduled for 2021, considering the unpredictability of the business environment under the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

European Logistics Investment (ELI) together with its strategic partner Panattoni is to lease more warehouse space. At the facility Panattoni Park Ruda Śląska II almost 57,000 square meters will be delivered for use, of which nearly 45,000 square meters have been leased out to the tenants Dywidag and LATEX Opony Inc.

P3 Logistic Parks has signed a lease agreement with Interbrands Marketing & Distribution for 24,830 square meters of logistics and office space within P3 Bucharest A1 park. Interbrands has been a client of the park since 2006 and decided now to relocate to a larger warehouse that can accommodate Orbico Group's expansion operations in Romania. On this occasion, Interbrands also begins the implementation of an extensive logistics automation project in the new warehouse.

United Business Center 3 in Timișoara has become the only LEED ‘Platinum’ certified office building in Romania outside Bucharest and the third one in the country.

XLMX obchodní s.r.o. has leased 16,000 sqm of warehouse space in ctPark Prague East in Nupaky with a view to setting up a regional warehouse for XXXLutz.