During their New Year’s Reception held at the British Ambassador’s Residence in Bucharest, RICS announced the new Advisory Board for Romania, which will be responsible for implementing RICS’ strategic goals locally and will work closely with key stakeholders in Romania.

Sustainability is top of the agenda this year at Davos as governments and businesses around the world are grappling with ways to combat climate change. Of the four global issues the World Economic Forum has said “clearly stand out as urgent and important” at the annual meeting in Switzerland, the first two are how to address environmental challenges harming our ecology and economy, and figuring out how to transform industries to achieve more sustainable business models. The built environment has a huge role to play in developing and implementing solutions, with technology, investment and robust governance central to success, according to the City Momentum Index report from JLL.

KGAL, an independent investment and asset manager, has bought a second office building in Warsaw. The acquisition of the Prosta Office Centre (POC) from Cromwell Property Group follows the 2018 purchase of the Spark office complex. Both assets were acquired for a Europe-wide special real estate AIF.

Total demand on the Budapest office market in Q4 2019 reached 202,510 sqm, representing an 18% increase from the corresponding period in 2018, according to BRF’s latest figures. The vacancy rate has decreased to a record low of 5.6%, representing another 0.3 pps reduction quarter-on-quarter.

The volume of real estate investments in Romania exceeded €1 billion in 2019, totalling about €1.06 billion, 7% higher than the figure registered in 2018, according to CBRE Romania’s data. The volume reached in 2019 also marks a record of the last five years in terms of investment transactions on the Romanian real estate market.

EPAM Systems, a global product development, digital platform engineering, and digital and product design agency signed a 2,100 sqm new office lease contract in Debrecen’s newly developed Forest Offices in December 2019. EPAM Systems will be moving to the first floor of the five-storey office building in February 2020. Cushman & Wakefield advised Capstone Befektetési Alapkezelő Zrt representing, Garda Ingatlan Fejlesztő Befeketetési Alap the owner of Forest Offices, in the lease negotiations.

Property Forum and RICS are looking for the most talented young professional of the Romanian real estate market. Nominations are accepted from every company active on the local market. The winner will be announced at SEE Property Forum in Bucharest, on 21 October 2020.

Savills has been appointed as sole adviser to M7 Real Estate for the fund’s entire office portfolio. Savills will be responsible for office space leasing and property management. The portfolio comprises a total of approximately 73,500 sqm across seven buildings located in four cities: Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw and Katowice.

Madison International Realty has acquired a 46.5 per cent equity stake in European Logistics Investment platform (ELI), a circa €500 million Polish real estate portfolio, from majority owner Redefine Properties Limited, a South-African based Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). The transaction is Madison’s first major logistics acquisition in Europe as it looks to increase its exposure to the asset class.

The stock of modern office space in Bucharest reached 3.16 million square meters at the end of the third quarter of 2019, in the context of a population of 2.11 million inhabitants and an unemployment rate of 1.3 %, according to the Romania Office Destinations report, conducted by CBRE Romania.