Ikea plans to open a new furniture store in central Vienna, next to the Westbahnhof railway station with no parking place for cars. The construction works started in January 2020 and will be finished by next year.

During their 7th CEE Annual Meeting held at the British Ambassador’s Residence in Vienna, RICS announced the new Advisory Board for Austria, which will be responsible for implementing RICS’ strategic goals locally and will work closely with key stakeholders in Austria.

The Executive Boards of S Immo and Immofinanz decided to end their discussions over the possible combination of the two companies. This decision was based, in particular, on the inability to reach an agreement over a possible exchange ratio.

CA Immo has successfully disposed of its 4,483,453 shares in Immofinanz representing approximately 4.0% of Immofinanz’ issued share capital by way of an accelerated book-building offering to institutional investors. The aggregate value of the remaining stake was approximately €111 million.

According to the latest RICS Commercial Property Monitor, CEE countries – most notably the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania – are still global leaders in occupier and investment sentiment. The Central European region’s most mature market, Austria is on a different path, however, with respondents reporting a broadly flat outlook.

Hosted by RICS in Austria, the 6th Annual RICS CEE Event, held at the British Ambassador’s Residence in Vienna, aimed to answer a number of questions related to the future of the profession and presented how RICS, a solution leader in the real estate sector, helps professionals become well-equipped to meet challenges of the 21st century.

On 20 September 2018, CEE Property Forum, a conference and networking event for real estate professionals from all over the CEE region will be held for the sixth time in Vienna. The event is organised by Property Forum, in close cooperation with RICS.

Immofinanz doubled the results of operations to €35.5 million in the first quarter of 2018 (Q1 2017: €17.8 million). Rental income rose by 3.3% to €59.0 million. The results of asset management increased by a sound 14.1% to €45.0 million following a substantial reduction in property expenses. Both the results of property sales and the results of property development turned clearly positive: the results of property sales improved to €3.5 million (€-6.0 million) and the results of property development to €1.8 million (€-5.8 million).

Net profit from continuing operations (i.e. excluding Russia) returned to the profit zone with a significant improvement to €181.0 million in 2017 (2016: €-147.4 million). That represents earnings per share of €0.17 (2016: €-0.15). Rental income was slightly higher at €234.5 million (2016: €233.4 million) despite the continuing sale of properties which do not fit in with the corporate strategy. After an adjustment for new acquisitions, completions and sales (like-for-like), rental income grew by a sound 4.5% to €200.0 million (annualised). The results of Asset Management rose by 13.4% to €150.8 million. In total, the results of operations increased by 44.4% to €107.6 million (2016: €74.5 million). Financial results turned substantially positive at €88.8 million (2016: €-107.6 million), above all due to positive valuation effects from the investments in CA Immo and BUWOG and a reduction in financing costs.

Allianz Real Estate has opened a new office in Vienna and appointed a new director to help strengthen the company’s presence across the region. Thomas Villadsen was named Director of Austria and Central & Eastern Europe (CEE).