Total commercial real estate investment across CEE (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) reached €4.4bn in Q4 2016, a 27% increase on Q4 2015. This took full year volumes for 2016 to just over €11bn, an 11% increase on 2015 (€9.9bn), bucking the wider trend across Europe and on the continent where volumes shrank year-on-year. Cushman & Wakefield Czech Republic predicts a further growth of the region.
In most Central and Eastern European countries the commercial property market is heavily concentrated in the capital city and modern offices in secondary or tertiary cities are virtually non-existent. Luckily, that is not the case in the Czech Republic, where there are cities outside of Prague, most notably Brno, that offer attractive opportunities for international companies. Czech-based developer CTP invited us for the opening ceremony of the new Courtyard by Marriott hotel and showed us the city’s property market.
2016 reached the volume of €11.8bn in investment markets across Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, according to a research report by Colliers International. Aside from Poland, investment flows in 2017 will be close to or higher than 2016’s. The retail sector might see continued rental growth and high investment levels across the region.
The sound global and domestic investment climate generated a major push in property investment activity in Hungary reaching the second highest ever registered annual volume of €1.7 billion in 2016, i.e. 133% up from the previous year. The most popular type of assets were offices with a share of 56%, followed by retail at 25%, while industrial deals accounted for 11% of the overall volume.
Total real estate investment volume in the Czech Republic exceeded €3.7 billion in 2016, CBRE revealed. The most notable transactions in 2016 were the sale of P3 Logistics Parks, the Park and Florentinum, with 67 transactions being mediated on the Czech market in total.
According to JLL, almost €900 million were invested into Romanian property in 2016, 35% more than in the previous year. 2016 has been a record breaking year at a country level all over CEE with the highest ever volumes recorded in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and second best ever results recorded in Poland, Hungary and the SEE region.
During Q4 2016 the total commercial real estate investment transaction volume reached some €270 million in Hungary, pushing the 2016 volume to above €1.7 billion, the highest annual figure since 2007– according to JLL Hungary’s latest preliminary statistics. According to JLL Hungary’s preliminary statistics office transactions generated roughly 48% of the annual investment volumes, followed by retail (27%) and logistics (14%). Hungarian investors generated the highest share of the annual volumes (30%) followed by US-based (20%) and German (14%) investors.
Strong demand across all investment sectors is expected to continue into 2017 in the Czech Republic and the €3 billion boundary could be exceeded once again. Retail is likely to become the most popular asset class next year, followed by offices and industrial. CBRE has released the Czech Republic Real Estate Market Outlook 2017.
Last year few would have anticipated that commercial real estate investment volumes for Hungary would even reach €1 billion this year, yet now it seems sure that 2016 will be a record year on the investment market. Over €910 million have been transacted in the first half of the year and an astonishing amount of new deals were announced in the second part of 2016, especially in the last few weeks. Looking at the transactions that took place this year, two things seem certain: one is that several new entrants made purchases in 2016 and the other is that market transparency still has a long way to go.
CBRE has published its inaugural Understanding European Technology Clusters report, highlighting the vibrancy and rapid growth of Europe’s tech sector. The report analyses the characteristics of tech clusters and explores future opportunities among high-performing, and emerging, tech cities across Europe.
Industrial developer Contera has concluded a contract with Pilsner Urquell for warehouse space measuring 3,676 sqm at Contera Park D1 in Ostrava-Hrušov.
108 Agency has helped secure the lease of 1,600 sqm of industrial space to comic book publishing house Seqoy in Panattoni Park Prague Airport II.
M7 Real Estate has announced that it has let a total of 1,605 sqm in Mokotów Plaza to three existing tenants (KDI, Rockwool and Telepizza) under new leases, maintaining the office building as their Polish headquarters. The office now has an occupancy of 81% with an average unexpired lease term of over 7 years.
New appointments
Jan Kamoji-Czapiński has joined Colliers' EMEA Location Strategy department, which was launched earlier this year. Jan took up the position of Associate Director and will be responsible for, among others, supporting companies in the development and implementation of location strategies.
Prologis Hungary has appointed Adrián Nagy as Facility Manager. Adrián gained a wealth of experience in the real estate, technical and construction sectors while working for BIS Hungary Kft. At Prologis, he is taking on management responsibilities and will report directly to Szilvia Andrelli, Senior Manager for Real Estate & Customer Experience.
Gábor Gratzl has reinforced the WING team as Business Development and Transaction Manager since February 2021. Prior to his current position, he worked as a senior investment advisor for the CBRE Hungary Capital Markets Consulting team for more than five years.
Property Forum is a leading event hub in the CEE real estate industry with nearly 10 years of experience. We organise conferences, business breakfasts and workshops focused on real estate, in London, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava and Prague, amongst other locations.
I have read the Privacy Policy of International Property Network Inc. and I consent to International Property Network Inc. sending me newsletters and managing my personal data provided for this purpose.
