Housing prices rose just 0.5% in Q2 2021 in Hungary, according to the Central Statistical Office’s (KSH) latest Housing Price Index. Year on year, the increase was 11.5% in Q2, partly because of a low base as prices fell slightly between April and June 2020 due to pandemic-related uncertainty.

Property developer Prime Kapital says it has finished the demolition phase on a former industrial platform in Iași where it will kick off the construction of Silk District, a mixed-use scheme. 

Hungary-based residential property developer Cordia is continuing its expansion in the UK residential property market. Its local subsidiary is building a complex of 366 rental apartments, bringing the total number of homes planned for the West Midlands region to over 1,800.

The construction of over 800 living units has started at the intersection of Postępu and Domaniewska Streets in Warsaw. The project has been developed by YIT for the leading Nordic real estate investor NREP. Unibep has been chosen as the general contractor. Smartti Mokotów will be the largest professionally run lease facility in Poland.

Hungary-based Alfa Group is entering the dynamically growing private rental sector (PRS) and will deliver the second and third phases of its Ha11er residential project in District 9 of Budapest with apartments for rent. Residential-for-rent is an already well-established market segment in Western Europe that has attracted significant interest from institutional investors. This is increasingly true for certain CEE countries as well, such as Poland or the Czech Republic, but in Hungary, Alfa Group is entering the PRS market as one of its pioneers.

Romanian property company Eden Capital Development will invest €25 million in a luxury residential complex in northern Bucharest comprising 172 apartments. 

Property developer One United Properties says it will maintain the existing, single-class share structure, which confers one voting right per each share held, following a ruling of a Bucharest-based court that confirms a shareholder vote from September. 

Real estate group Duna House has released its monthly Transaction Estimate and mortgage forecast, showing that there were 11,526 residential property transactions in Hungary in October 2021, down 2.4% over September, and also below the October prints of the previous years. This marks a downturn after a pickup in August and September, but the number of transactions is still expected to exceed 150,000 in 2021.

Asking prices of apartments in Romania rose by 10.3% in the first nine months of 2021 compared to the same period of last year, with Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca remaining the most expensive markets for home buyers, according to a report by Imobiliare.ro portal. 

For the second successive quarter, developers have attempted to establish equilibrium between units sold and new units coming onto the market. Rising inflation continues to drive buyers to developers’ offices, with sales for the first three quarters of 2021 exceeding 2020’s annual total, says JLL.