The past year has probably been the weakest since 2009 in terms of the volume of investments in real estate, both in the Czech Republic and throughout Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This conclusion has resulted from the KPMG Property Lending Barometer survey. It has involved representatives of 48 banks from 10 CEE countries.

The Romanian property market remains attractive for investments, with 65% of investors surveyed by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox saying they are looking to expand their presence in the local market.

The volume of commercial land sales in Romania excluding the industrial segment fell by less than 10% to €450 million during 2023 compared to the previous year, according to a Colliers report.

Uncertainty and volatility have been the two dominant trends shaping the commercial real estate market and buyer sentiment in recent months. However, according to the latest report from Cushman & Wakefield, the Polish market, whose fundamentals remain strong, is broadly expected to regain equilibrium. Change is being seen in the number and types of real estate transactions taking place – due to the constrained availability of safe prime assets for sale on the office market and high financing costs, investors seeking higher returns are turning their focus to higher-risk transactions. With retail footfall figures for large schemes back at satisfactory levels after the pandemic and attractive asset pricing, the retail market has become an interesting sector for bargain hunting. The warehouse and logistics sector continues to feature prominently on investors’ radars.

The first project of the charitable foundation Housing For IDPs - the Socialization Centre for IDPs for 19 families - will be opened in the Irpin community at the beginning of the year.

2024 will be a challenging year for many companies in the CEE real estate sector that will have to refinance their loans at new, increased costs. Those that need to redeem their corporate bonds in the coming quarters may also have a lot of problems.

Savills recorded 40 transactions closed in 2023 in the Czech commercial real estate sector with a total investment volume of €1.2 billion. Investment volume in 2023 was down 32% in comparison to 2022. 31% of investment transactions in 2023 were closed in Prague.

The “2% Safe Mortgage” housing loan subsidy programme introduced by Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party has caused housing prices in Poland to shoot into space. However, the new government in Warsaw cannot abolish it, as a spike in demand could shake up the entire domestic property development industry.

The new Polish government, dominated by the Koalicja Obywatelska (Civic Coalition) party, announced back in the election campaign that it would resume work on a law on REIT-type structures, abandoned several years ago. Economic organizations are calling on it to make good on its economic promises - the introduction of domestic REITs could bolster domestic demand and lure more domestic capital to the real estate market, virtually non-existent here today.

2024 is foreseen to experience a decline in SEE construction markets but a comeback is the projected current scenario for 2025. Romania is expected to contribute most negatively to the shrinkage of the SEE region in 2024. The rest of the countries is forecast to perform better. Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia could end up at higher level in 2025 than what was experienced in 2023. The EECFA (Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association) released its 2023 winter construction forecast.