Warsaw-based developer Echo Investment has concluded two loan agreements worth over EUR 317 million with Berlin Hyp, ING Bank Śląski and Helaba – Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen. These investment loans will be used to refinance four office and seven retail projects.

Acting in its capacity as advisor for a German depositary bank, who is currently administrating the German Special-AIF UBS (D) Sector 3 Real Estate Europe, UBS Real Estate GmbH has sold the Nova Praga office building in Warsaw to Mazovia Capital. Cushman & Wakefield and Magnusson Law represented the vendor in the transaction. The building will now be known as Mazovia Plaza.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, strong investment activity in the core Central European markets of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania continued in the first quarter of 2016, with EUR 1.4 billion invested. The slight decrease in transaction volume of 5% compared to the corresponding period of 2015 was smaller than the 14% fall recorded for Europe overall. Q1 activity was also above the long-run average of EUR 1.2 billion since 2007.

Investment into Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries (excluding Russia) for Q1 2016 registered a slight decrease (6%) compared to the same period of last year, reaching €1.84 billion, CBRE’s research shows. Expectations are that for the entire year, investment volumes will reach and exceed the record volumes of 2015, with all CEE countries expected to perform strongly. 

GTC has acquired two buildings in Bucharest, Premium Plaza and Premium Point. The two modern A-class office buildings in the capital’s CBD will increase GTC’s Romanian portfolio by 15,000 square metres of net leasable area.

OTP Real Estate Investment Fund has acquired a 30-thousand-square-metre logistics property within the Industrial Park of Győr. The purchase is part of a portfolio optimization strategy, by which the Fund aims to increase the yields of the OTP Real Estate Investment Fund.

IMMOFINANZ AG announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire 25,690,167 ordinary shares that represent ca. 26% of the outstanding share capital and voting rights in CA Immo from O1 Group Limited and Terim Limited. The acquisition is a first step towards a planned full combination of IMMOFINANZ and CA Immo by way of a statutory merger. Prior to the envisaged merger, IMMOFINANZ is planning to demerge or sell its Russian asset portfolio which is characterised by different market dynamics and a higher risk profile.

According to the CBRE Investment Breakfast Intentions Survey the vast majority of investors expect more than EUR 1 billion of investments in the Hungarian commercial real estate markets in 2016.

HB Reavis Group and Zeus Capital Management have completed the sale and purchase of Váci Corner Offices. HB Reavis Group’ first development in Hungary, located in the heart of the Váci út office corridor in Budapest, has been purchased by a group of investors represented by Zeus Capital Management. This is the first major office transaction in the Hungarian real estate market in 2016, as well as a milestone in the business development of HB Reavis in Hungary. This acquisition is made by Zeus Capital Management in relation to its commercial properties investment platform dedicated to Central East and South East Europe.

After many long years Budapest once again had a booth at the world’s most important real estate expo, MIPIM. With this, Budapest at least partially returned to the investor marker, since traditionally every significant Central European city is represented by a booth. The Hungarian capital has not quite attained the investor attention that for example Warsaw has, but investor sentiment towards the Hungarian property market has improved noticeably recently, and this can be experienced in Cannes too.