Real estate investment volumes in CEE reached almost €10.7 billion during 2022, up 6.6% compared to the previous year, with Poland accounting for 54% of all transactions, trailed by the Czech Republic and Romania with shares of 14% and 12%, respectively, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.
Almost all countries in the region reported an upward movement in 2022, with the sole exception of the Czech Republic, which experienced a second consecutive year of decline.
Therefore, Poland recorded a growth of 2.2%, while the investment volume in Slovakia was 45.9% higher y-o-y in 2022 to 11%, with Hungary registering only a marginal increase of 0.4% to 9%.
In Romania, the number of deals fell by 3 to 51 transactions, while the transaction volume reached almost €1.3 billion, of which €944 million worth of deals were closed in the second semester. The highest number of transactions pertained to office buildings - around 43% of the total (22), followed by retail properties (12), alongside industrial and logistics assets (7).
“While foreign investors from mature markets, such as the United States, Germany or Sweden remained dominant in the Polish market, closing the largest transactions, we have noticed an increasing activity of the domestic capital in the other markets. This comes as a result of a better understanding of the market particularities, with the local investors having a higher appetite for risk. As such, almost 40% of the investment volume recorded in the region in 2022 represents acquisitions made by local investors, the most active being Pavăl Holding from Romania (with investments of over €450 million in the country) and Adventum from Hungary (with acquisitions exceeding €350 million in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland)," said Cristi Moga, Head of Capital Markets at Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.
The largest transactions in Romania in terms of volume pertained to CA Immo’s sale of its Romanian office portfolio (6 buildings totalling 165,000 sqm) to Pavăl Holding Properties (Dedeman Group) and Prime Kapital’s disposal of its 60% interest in 6 retail parks (132,000 sqm GLA) to MAS Real Estate. S Immo’s acquisition of the Expo Business Park office project from Portland Trust was the third transaction that crossed the €100 million threshold. These three deals account for more than half of the total volume recorded in 2022 in Romania.
The prime yields have seen an upward movement across all segments due to the increasing financing costs, in line with the trend registered in the entire CEE region, as the office and retail segments recorded a 25 bp spike, with a 15 bp rise for industrial & logistics assets respectively.
