At Bratislava Property Forum 2026, investors and market experts compared notes on where capital is actually moving in CEE real estate and what is still holding it back. The opening discussion, moderated by Rudolf Nemec MRICS, Partner & Head of Capital Markets at Cushman & Wakefield Slovakia, made it clear that while activity is picking up, higher financing costs, geopolitical uncertainty and stricter return expectations continue to shape how and where deals get done.
From the perspective of private equity, Zuzana Kanalová, Investment Manager in Real Estate at Sandberg Capital, described the company’s focus on residential assets. “We target returns in the 12–15 percent range, but what has surprised me most is how difficult it is to deploy capital in the Czech Republic, where there is so much money that Slovak investors are often politely told they are not really needed.” She highlighted the strategic opportunity in residential, including build-to-sell and build-to-rent: “We see strong long-term potential in residential and student housing, which will ultimately become institutional products. The challenge is finding the right partners and projects in markets that are already very capital-rich.”
Representing a major regional fund manager, Vladimír Bolek, Portfolio Management, Member of the Board at IAD Investments, emphasised the breadth of their role across asset classes and the central importance of financing. “We are at the same time developers, buyers and sellers, managing more than one and a half billion euros across various funds with different strategies. That means we are active in Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a particular focus on logistics development and selective office exposure.” For Bolek, the biggest risk is clear: “The cost of financing is the crucial variable for real estate investment today, affecting both new deals and refinancing. In a capital-intensive sector, you have to recalculate every project twice or three times—and yet every difficult phase of the market also creates opportunities for those who are prepared.”
Tomas Cifra, Partner & Managing Director Central & Eastern Europe at Mitiska REIM, outlined a pan-European strategy centred on convenience retail and operational value add. “We have raised around €450 million of equity in our latest fund, focusing on retail parks and urban logistics across Western Europe and CEE. In the last 12 months, development margins have shrunk, so we are increasingly looking to buy existing income-producing assets with CapEx and ESG backlogs, where we can create operational alpha.” Cifra stressed that real value now lies in execution rather than pure yield compression: “We are still buyers, but much more selective, and we also remain sellers because we run closed-end funds. Our ability to deliver returns will come from buying at realistic yields, managing assets intensively and hedging risks such as interest rates, rather than betting on the market to lift all boats.”
Speaking from the asset management and macroeconomic angle, Gábor Regős PhD, Chief Economist at Gránit Asset Management, focused on portfolio construction and geopolitical uncertainty. “In our real estate funds, you find not only buildings, but also bonds and other financial instruments, and we can actively adjust the ratio between real estate and liquid assets. When interest rates fall, it is rational to hold more real estate, but when geopolitical tensions push up inflation and rates, financial assets may suddenly become more competitive.” He warned that volatility is both a threat and a source of return: “An increase of 100 basis points in interest rates is no longer a dramatic scenario in today’s world. Greater volatility means real estate must work harder to remain attractive, but it also creates mispricing, and one of our key added values as asset managers is to identify assets that are wrongly priced and still meet ESG and energy-efficiency standards.”
Closing the session, Nemec returned to sentiment and risk, noting that survey data shows the most positive outlook since 2022, but on fragile foundations. “Investors are clearly optimistic and hold significant undeployed capital, yet they are also acutely aware of how quickly the environment can change. The consensus from this panel is that geopolitics and financing costs are the dominant risks, while the main source of return has shifted decisively toward operational excellence and disciplined asset selection.”
