Skanska invests about €65 million in the first phase of the new office complex H2Offices located in Budapest, Hungary. It will offer a total leasable area of about 26,000 square meters and is designed to obtain WELL and LEED certifications.

Atenor announced the signing of a financing of €80 million with pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and Erste Bank. This funding for a period of 5 years (2020 - 2025) covers the three buildings that make up the 75,000 sqm Hermes Business Campus office complex in Bucharest.

AFI Europe NV has concluded a new agreement with NEPI for the purchase of 4 Class A office projects in Romania, with a total GLA of 118,500 sqm. The transaction value is of €290 million and the portfolio’s takeover is scheduled to be finalised within the next four months.   

When assessing the first quarter of 2020, analysts of EBI Construction Activity Report Q1 2020 already highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the Hungarian construction industry. Back then, they did it with the help of a forecast based on limited available data, but since then actual data have been released and the impact of the pandemic on the sector can be assessed in detail.

The Polish warehouse market maintained its robust momentum in the first half of 2020, with a record 2.38 million sqm leased. Gross take-up in the second quarter of 2020 – during a time of strict COVID-19 lockdown measures - was as much as 50% higher compared to the same period in 2019, at 1.36 million sqm. Such good outcomes were the result of high demand for space on the back of booming e-commerce trade and numerous BTS transactions which commenced earlier in the year, according to Axi Immo.

Ever since shopping centres in Poland were reopened in May, the share of online sales in total retail sales has been falling steadily - it stood at 7.7% in June compared with 9.1% a month earlier and 5-6% before the pandemic. Cushman & Wakefield has summarised Q2 2020 on the Polish retail market.

CTP will modernise the Spielberk office complex near the Brno city centre. The aim is to lower energy consumption and ultimately reduce the carbon footprint of the site. CTP is investing almost €1.5 million (CZK 40 million) into modernising the energy system.

On 5 August 2020, CPI Property Group auctioned HUF 30 billion (about €86 million) of senior unsecured green bonds with a 10-year bullet maturity. The bonds carry a coupon in Forint of 2.25% and were sold at a yield of about 2.02% following a robust investor response with bids of more than HUF 45 billion received at auction. The issuer was the Group’s subsidiary CPI Hungary Investments Kft., with an unconditional guarantee from CPIPG. Raiffeisen Bank Zrt. acted as sole mandated lead arranger on the offering.

Atrium European Real Estate has completed the sale of five retail assets in Poland to Metropol Group. The value of the transaction remains confidential. The seller was represented by the Avison Young and JLL investment teams throughout the transaction.

According to a new report published by Cresa Poland, the Tricity office market is likely to become a tenant’s market soon due to the changing market environment. Tricity is still attractive for the BPO/SSC/GBS sector. Additionally, investments in its seaport and transport infrastructure are a magnet for sea freight operators.