Over the past year, many residential markets in CEE that have historically depended on credit buyers, have experienced a significant slowdown. This is not the case with Serbia’s residential market which has been dominated by cash buyers. At the same time, the local commercial real estate market also remains attractive to foreign investors, especially for the development of logistics and industrial facilities. These are just some of the conclusions of last week‘s Balkans Property Forum 2023, organised in Belgrade by Property Forum.

CPI Property Group executed €731 million of disposals during the first three quarters of 2023. During the period, the Group has also signed multiple secured bank loans and continued to raise senior unsecured debt, contributing to a total of almost €1.2 billion in new external financing year to date.

Technology is capable of extending offices’ lifespans and reducing the necessity for extensive renovations. However, due to economic and geopolitical events, investors are more restrained, Colliers reports.

Real estate developer Atenor has concluded a share capital increase of €181.5 million and it has reached €257.5 million following the completion of this operation.

Signa, one of the largest real estate holdings in Austria, said it would file for insolvency on Thursday in Vienna, after one of its subsidiaries took a similar step earlier in Germany.

Immofinanz Group recorded strong growth in both rental income and operating results in the first three quarters of 2023 due to acquisitions, the full consolidation of S Immo and successful asset management. Rental income rose by 79.4% year-on-year to €389.2 million; the results of asset management, at €323.7 million, were even 92.2% higher than in the previous year. The results of operations increased to €209.1 million and sustainable FFO 1 from the standing investment business more than doubled to €214.4 million.

CA Immo has reported a good operating performance for the first three quarters of 2023. The results show, among other things, a significant increase in rental income (+9%) and high income from the sale of non-strategic properties (sales result of €158 million, FFO II +88%), which led to an increase in the operating result (EBITDA) of 129% compared to the previous year´s figure. In total, CA Immo generated a consolidated net profit of €61.1 million, which was around 77% below the previous year's figure, primarily due to the non-cash-effective, market-related negative result from revaluation.

How to invest in challenging times? How to diversify one’s investment portfolio to minimize risk? What properties are investors allocating their capital in nowadays? Marcin Purgal, Senior Director, Investment and Paulina Brzeszkiewicz-Kuczyńska, Research and Data Manager at Avison Young Poland answered these questions and many others.

Property markets in CEE have solid building blocks and the region can attract more investment across the commercial sector, with industrial and private student housing standing out, concluded speakers at the CEE Investment Update London 2023 event last week, organised by Property Forum and RICS.

According to Workthere.pl’s latest Flexmark report, larger companies (101+ people) and scale-ups (21-100 people) now account for 54% of global flexible office members, compared with 42% of members last year. The flexible office specialist notes that this increase is also reflected in take-up levels with these larger companies accounting for 34% of global take-up in flexible offices, compared to 22% in 2022 and just 13% in 2020.