Echo Polska Properties (EPP) has concluded a preliminary acquisition agreement with two real estate funds managed by Blackstone, to acquire 4 retail properties for €166.57 million. The properties are Galeria Twierdza in Klodzko (€40.67m), Galeria Twierdza in Zamosc (€53.51m), Galeria Tecza in Kalisz (€23.21m) and Wzorcownia Shopping Centre in Wloclawek (€49.17m). 

Investors spent €1.54 billion in 2016 in the Hungarian commercial real estate market surpassing the 2015 level by 107%. Last year both office properties and retail properties were in request, thus CBRE is expecting a similar or even higher turnover for 2017.

AEW has sold the Smíchov Gate office building in Prague 5 after almost ten years of ownership on behalf of one of the funds managed by AEW. The new owner is Redside, manager of real estate open-ended investment fund NOVA Real Estate (SICAV). Cushman & Wakefield facilitated the sale of the property.

At the end of last year Colliers sold the former Bricostore DIY-unit in Törökbálint to Régió, a Hungarian toy company. The building has approx. 12,000 sqm of GLA and will be used by Régió for warehousing purposes.

Arcona Capital has announced that its Arcona Property Fund is on course to complete the acquisition from RECE of a portfolio of 11 neighbourhood shopping centres in Poland for €25.9 million. Arcona has already completed on eight of the centres and will complete on the other three centres by the end of the first quarter of 2017.

CA Immo has completed negotiations with Union Investment Real Estate GmbH on acquiring 49% of shares each in the office buildings Danube House in Prague and Building A of Infopark in Budapest, both so far part of the open-ended property fund UniImmo: Europe. The deal, which has already been closed, will make an immediate positive contribution to long-term profitability by around €3 million.

CPI Property Group anticipates the acquisition of a retail portfolio located in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania from funds managed by CBRE Global Investors. If completed, this can become the largest real estate deal of the region in 2017.

CBRE Global Investors has acquired, on behalf of a separate account client, Prague’s Letňany Shopping Centre from Tesco. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed.

Aberdeen Asset Management Deutschland AG has signed an agreement to sell the Construdava office building in Bucharest to AdamAmerica, the advisor of the seller, Colliers International reported.

International real estate advisor Savills has reported that investors into Europe’s retail sector are shifting their interest to some of the continent’s non-core markets. Investment into Europe’s retail sector during Q1-Q3 2016 reached €33.3 billion across the 15 markets that Savills covers, down 28% from the 2015 record volume. However, despite the overall drop of total turnover in the two largest markets of the UK (-18%) and Germany (-46%) during this time period, Europe’s non-core markets in contrast have experienced a significant rise in retail investment. These include: Ireland (223% to €1.46 billion); Poland (126% to €1.4 billion) and Italy (119% to €1.8 billion).