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With the first interest rate cuts in the Eurozone in a long time, optimism has also returned to the banking sector, as the participants of the banker panel at the CEE Property Financing Update 2024 conference unanimously concluded. However, it is limited by factors such as the uncertain political situation in the United States or the EU taxonomy, through which many older buildings may become troubled assets for their owners. The event, held at the end of September in Warsaw, was organised by Property Forum and law firm CMS.

Răzvan Nica, Managing Director, BuildGreen, spoke with Property Forum about the decarbonisation efforts of real estate companies and the growing appeal of green buildings for banks.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG (pbb), a leading European specialist bank for commercial real estate finance, expects its results for the current financial year to be significantly higher than in 2023. 

The beginning of February has brought a sharp fall in bank rates in the Czech Republic, and housing loans are thus the cheapest in more than a year and a half, E15.cz reports.

Panattoni presented its investment financing for 2023. In Poland, the company obtained 29 bank loans for development projects worth a combined sum of more than €800 million.

The past year has probably been the weakest since 2009 in terms of the volume of investments in real estate, both in the Czech Republic and throughout Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This conclusion has resulted from the KPMG Property Lending Barometer survey. It has involved representatives of 48 banks from 10 CEE countries.

The “2% Safe Mortgage” housing loan subsidy programme introduced by Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party has caused housing prices in Poland to shoot into space. However, the new government in Warsaw cannot abolish it, as a spike in demand could shake up the entire domestic property development industry.

Inflation across Europe is cooling down but interest rates are still at historical highs. Leading bankers and investment experts discussed at last month's CEE Property Forum 2023 in Vienna how their financing strategies were adapting.

The largest transaction on the Czech office market this year took place in Prague. A listed building in one of Prague's most expensive streets, Na Příkopě, was bought from Commerzbank Group by Trinity Bank. The price of the transaction has not been officially disclosed, but it is likely to exceed CZK 2 billion (€82 million), making it this year's largest transaction on the office building market, writes online daily newstream.cz.

Despite the turbulent economic situation, banks are readily lending money to the commercial real estate segment, with warehouses being their top choice. The industrial investor Accolade is one of the most willingly financed warehouse portfolio holders in Poland. The company benefits from over €500 million in bank loans, 40% of which has been acquired since February 2020. At the same time, in the Czech Republic, the company has signed a loan agreement with a club of banks for €137.5 million. It is the largest ever loan provided for a single industrial rental property in the CEE region.