Savills World Research says that offices in core city markets around the world will be real estate investors’ focus in 2020, but with opportunities scarce and yields at record lows, many will be forced to look elsewhere. Alternative assets, such as student housing, multi-family, co-living and data centres, will therefore become increasingly mainstream. Globally, Savills says that securing income returns will remain the overarching theme for real estate investment in 2020.

Colliers International Romania has been assigned to provide property management services for the first building of the Equilibrium office project, developed by Skanska in the capital which was handed over last fall. This is the second mandate won by Colliers from Skanska, bringing the total portfolio managed by the company to almost 530,000 sqm of industrial and office spaces.

The area of Budapest’s Arena Mall could grow from its current 42,000 sqm to 60,000 sqm, following the property manager’s application for an extension last December, local daily HVG reports. If the plans are realised, Arena Mall will become the largest shopping centre in Hungary.

Globalworth Real Estate Investment, by buying a 50% stake from Elgan Group, has become the sole shareholder of real estate developer Elgan Offices. The two companies developed the Renault Bucharest Connected (RBC) building located in the western part of Bucharest. Elgan Group is owned by Israeli businessman Simon Roth.

Colliers International Czech Republic announced the appointment of Vendula Marsova, MRICS, as its new Head of Valuation and Advisory Services. Vendula started her position in November 2019 and in her new role, she will focus on driving the continued growth and success of the firm’s valuation division; improving client experience, developing relationships and optimising the CRE valuation service delivery model.

Savills Investment Management prefers long-lease income streams in 2020 instead of value-add and opportunistic strategies that depend on economic and strong employment prospects. The international real estate investment manager published its market outlook.

Cushman & Wakefield contributed to the leasing of over 6,600 sqm prime retail warehouse area, and to the sales of 7,000 sqm countryside retail area in Q4 2019. 

The Investment Services department at Colliers International has been joined by Mark Richardson as director. The new expert will be a valuable support for the team managed by Piotr Mirowski. 

According to JLL estimates, the value of the real estate investment transactions in Poland was a record-breaking €7.4 billion. This is a better result than 2018 (over €7.2 billion. The last 12 months were the best ever for the office segment, where the sales and acquisitions were worth more than €3.8 billion – over a billion euros more than the previous year.

REM Group has acted as property advisors, project managers and now as property manager of the Korean Cultural Center (KCC) located at 30-34 Frankel Leo Street, in District II of Budapest. The building of more than 5,000 sqm was extensively refurbished to house the Korean Cultural Center as part of a relocation from their previous premises in the MOMentum Office building in District XII of Budapest.