Globalworth, the leading office investor in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), announces the appointment of Marian Popa as Managing Director for Romania with effect from 1st March 2021. As Managing Director, Marian Popa will be responsible for managing the company’s activities in Romania, focusing on operational, administration and business development matters, and will report to Dimitris Raptis, CEO of Globalworth Group.

Over the year, the developer signed lease agreements with such clients as Media Expert, 4f, InPost, Allegro and Phoenix Contact for over 2.1 million sqm of space – 800,000 sqm more than the previous year. This volume was achieved in spite of the outbreak of the epidemic in March and was mainly due to the e-commerce boom. The strong performance of the warehouse and industrial market was also the result of other new trends – such as the shift of production from Asia closer to the end consumer and retail networks securing the continuity of their supply chains.

Savas Gencer has been appointed as investment director at 7R. He has joined the investment team led by Christopher Zeuner and will be responsible for capital raising activities and 7R’s international expansion into new European markets.

Over 650,000 sqm of logistics and industrial space were rented last year in Romania, almost 40% more than in 2019, a Dunwell analysis shows.

CTP is expanding its industrial park north of the Serbian capital, CTPark Belgrade North, following the purchase of a 28,500 sqm warehouse and adjacent land for further development from Austrian-based real estate developer Eyemaxx. As a result, the overall capacity of CTPark Belgrade North now stands at 50,000 sqm, with the landbank enabling to achieve about 115,000 sqm of leaseable space at the location.

In 2020, Echo Investment hit records both in sales and handovers of apartments. It managed to sign 1570 sales contracts with clients, what outperformed last year's results by 16%. At the same time, clients received their keys to 1505 apartments, which in turn means a 19% increase compared to 2019.

US investor Starwood Capital, through its Luxembourg holding company SOF-11 Klimt CAI S.à r.l., has increased its stake in Austrian company CA Immo to 29.99% in the past few weeks and announced a takeover offer for the remaining shares for €34.44 per share. Starwood also plans to submit an offer for CA Immo’s convertible bonds.

In response to growing demand for logistics space on the domestic market, ConvergenCE has prepared a ready-made product in Tárnok, Hungary where the construction of an 8,000 sqm logistics hall can be started immediately.

The COVID-19 pandemic did not affect real estate transactions in Romania. During 2020, a total of 602,805 properties were traded, 62,625 more than in 2019, according to the Romanian National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration (ANCPI). 

Liviu Tudor, the Romanian investor who owns the most office space in Bucharest through Genesis Property, bought a former factory for which he paid €3 million, Ziarul Financiar reports citing market sources.