Over the past decade, Hungarian real estate investors have successfully expanded outside of their home market. Firms such as Wing, Futureal, Adventum, Indotek and others have become major players in many European countries, mainly Poland and Romania. They managed to expand via acquisitions of both companies and projects. Part of their funds came from bond issues in Hungary within the Bond Funding for Growth Scheme of the National Bank of Hungary. We have prepared a timeline of the notable transactions and an overview of the market’s key players to provide a better understanding of this trend.

MDC2 and Generali Real Estate have financed the purchase of a natural forest in Gruszowiec in Małopolskie Voivodeship on behalf of MDC2 Park Kraków South, a warehouse project in Skawina near Kraków. MDC2 has been a partner of the Las Na Zawsze Foundation since 2022, supporting it financially and engaging team members in cyclical forest plantings in Poland. The purpose of the initiative is to protect the mature forest for present and future generations.

Despite a challenging financing environment, mixed-use developments are gaining ground in Romania as they provide a better mix of facilities for end–users and tenants, concluded speakers of the mixed-use panel of SEE Property Forum 2023, held in Bucharest recently.

In the first half of the year, there was a sharp decline in the volume of real estate investments in Poland. Despite the market recovery at the end of summer, the total volume in Q1-Q3 2023 amounted to only €1.7 billion. After the first half of the year with few portfolio transactions, in the third quarter, there were already four - in the warehouse and retail sectors, but none of them exceeded the value of €100 million. Interestingly, despite the turmoil, the Polish investment market welcomed 3 new players this year. Avison Young Poland summarizes the property investment market in Poland in Q3 2023

Property Forum is excited to announce the results of its first biannual investment market sentiment survey focusing on the Romanian market which was conducted ahead of SEE Property Forum 2023. The results, providing an overview of market expectations across sectors, are now available online.

Co-working space provider WeWork, which was once valued at $47 billion, has been forced to file for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. The filing is set to provide the company with protection from its creditors and landlords as it restructures its vast debts. Based on its latest share price, WeWork is now worth less than $50 million.

The increase of VAT to 9% will lead to a price increase, while buyers have a growing interest in green homes, concluded speakers of the residential panel of SEE Property Forum 2023, held in Bucharest recently.

Industrial parks should become a powerful driver of the economy and a driving force for the development of the Ukrainian industry and its inclusion in the European system. The state has created the prerequisites for this: in addition to tax incentives, the draft budget for 2024 provides UAH 1 billion (€26 million) for a program to support industrial parks. Iryna Nastych summarised the situation in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum. She analysed how the segment of industrial parks has received a boost in development despite the war, what is the synergy between the state, business and local communities, and what prevents more active development of this area.

On Wednesday the 15th of November (between 8:30 and 14:30) the Belgian Business Chamber (BBC) is organising the annual Real Estate Conference. The Real Estate Conference is an industry event dedicated to the investment market, real estate and construction companies. Property Forum is a Media Partner of the event.

At €3.2 billion for Q1-Q3 2023, CEE investment activity is at a 10+ year low (down 59% year-on-year). The pricing gap between buyers’ and sellers' expectations remains a significant barrier to seeing volumes return to the 5 and 10-year average levels of €10-11 billion. However, real estate fundamentals in CEE remain fairly robust.  Lower levels of vacancy are being recorded and some good levels of rental growth in certain sectors have been noted, reveals Colliers in its latest report.