The construction works of Etele Plaza has begun next to the Kelenföld railway station at the western gate of Budapest. As Futureal Group’s latest commercial development, the shopping and entertainment centre with a gross building area of 155,000 square meters will be the biggest of its kind on the Buda side of the city. The mall, combining unique architectural solutions and digital services will feature more fashion brands in one place than any other shopping centre in Hungary.

ECE plans to develop a new shopping centre in Budapest. The project area is located in the North-western part of the Hungarian capital, close to the Danube River, on the site of a former textile factory in the Óbuda district. It is planned to have over 170 shops on three levels and a leasable area of more than 50,000 sqm. Construction start for the project is scheduled for 2019, and the opening is planned for 2021.

Over the last 20 years, the Polish cinema market has maintained strong growth momentum with an average 8.7% y/y increase in ticket sales in 2017 and cinema attendance hitting 56.6 million. Today, there are more than 1,300 screens in nearly 500 cinemas across the country. Multiplexes with two or more screens make up only approximately 25% of all cinemas in Poland but account for 75% of all screens. Most of them (80%) are located in shopping centres. Despite its rapid expansion, this market still has a big growth potential considering saturation levels in Poland and Western Europe.

Immofinanz has opened two further retail parks in its Stop Shop brand. The Stop Shop portfolio has now grown to 72 locations with roughly 500,000 sqm of rentable space in eight countries. The new properties are located in the Serbian cities of Požarevac (7,200 sqm) and Vršac (8,250 sqm). Both locations are 100% rented. The tenants include, among others, LC Waikiki, Reserved, Sinsay, CCC, Deichmann and DM.

During the first quarter of 2018, the Polish retail market witnessed investment transactions totalling over €1.7 billion. This is the largest volume ever recorded in Q1 on the market. JLL summarised Q1 2018 on the retail market in Poland.

So far in 2018 CBRE won the management of further 10 properties (industrial and shopping centres and an office building) in Budapest. The Budapest office now manages a 600,000 sqm portfolio in Hungary.

Decathlon, the world's largest sports retailer, is now entering Serbia. Partnering with BIG CEE group, the retailer plans to open its first store in Q2 2019 at Big Fashion Park Belgrade.

Carrefour Poland presented an overview of the chain’s activities in 2017, the strategical objectives for 2018 as well as the actions that will be undertaken as part of the transformation plan of the Group, called “Carrefour 2022”.

Galeria Mazovia, a retail asset located in Płock, Poland and owned by the CBRE European Shopping Centre Fund (ESCF), has obtained a BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Assessment Method) rating of ‘Excellent’ in tests conducted in February 2018.

Bistrita Retail Park will be inaugurated in May 2018, Element Development, the park’s announced. The list of tenants for the nearly 8,000 sqm retail park include, among others, Carrefour Market, JYSK, Decathlon and Top Shop.