Commercial property investment in Romania amounted to €149.6 million in the first quarter of 2023, up by 73% compared to the same period of last year, with the biggest contributions from the industrial and office segments, according to real estate consultancy Crosspoint Real Estate.

Hungarian developer and investor Wing and asset management company Griffin Capital Partners (GCP) have successfully finished the acquisition of the German developer Bauwert AG. 

Bulgarian malt producer Malteries Soufflet, one of the world's three leading operators in the malt industry and a subsidiary of the European agricultural group InVivo, will invest €56 million in constructing a new malt plant near the city of Pleven.

One of the biggest transactions of the year in the Czech real estate market is about to take place. Negotiations for the sale of the OC Letňany shopping centre are supposedly ongoing in Prague. After six years, the German owner of the shopping centre is considering selling the property, writes HN.cz, as confirmed by two sources from the Central European M&A market.

Investor NREP wants to take control of property developer 7R. The Scandinavian fund has already acquired another Polish logistics developer, BIK SA, in 2021.

During the first quarter of 2023, the volume of investment in commercial real estate exceeded €477 million, a result that far exceeded initial expectations. The reason for these positive figures is a single large transaction into the retail property portfolio, which accounts for the majority of the total quarterly investment volume. This transaction is the reason why most of the funds in the past quarter went to the retail segment. Domestic investors were the most active last quarter, accounting for an unprecedented 87% of the total, according to Knight Frank's analysis of the Czech commercial real estate market.

Echo Investment's residential business will be integrated into Archicom in order to create a nationwide developer with bigger growth potential, synergies and a wider market presence. The change will clarify the structure of the Group, where Archicom will be the residential part and Echo Investment will focus on growing the commercial and PRS segments, as well as on creating mixed-use ‘destination’ projects.

Logicor continues expanding in the Czech Republic when it acquired a 100,000 sqm brownfield close to Prague, further strengthening its presence in this crucial market and nearly doubling its footprint.

Penta Real Estate plans to diversify its real estate portfolio and is preparing for further expansion within Europe. It wants to establish a real estate fund for this purpose, as Marek Dospiva, co-owner of the group, revealed to E15.cz

Commercial property investments in Romania could hover between €700 and €900 million in 2023, slightly below the average of recent years, with new deals set to be driven by industrial and office projects, according to JLL.