There’s a lot of capital targeting real estate in Central & Eastern Europe but finding the right investment product remains a huge challenge. Panellists of the CEE investment panel at Portfolio Property Investment Forum 2019 in Budapest discussed the risks investors in the region need to keep in mind.

The construction of Millennium Gardens, TriGranit’s newest office development in Budapest, has reached the ground floor level. Situated in a well-known cultural neighbourhood next to a green promenade by the Danube in Budapest, the 37,000 sqm GLA development will be handed over in Q2 2021.

HGA Capital, a member of the CARISTO Management Group, has sold the Oktogon House office building in central Budapest to a company belonging to RIMO Holding AG. The transaction price has not been disclosed.

Hungarian investors Indotek Group plans to buy the 5-star Sofitel hotel in the centre of Budapest, according to hvg.hu. The transaction still requires the approval of the Hungarian Competition Authority.

Adventum International, a Malta-based boutique investment fund manager, has acquired the 66,000 sqm GLA Köki Terminal shopping centre in Budapest for its Adventum Quartum investment fund.

Multi Hungary announced its extensive refurbishment plans for Allee shopping centre in Buda, in the most densely populated district of Budapest. Multi will upgrade and renovate the 46,700 sqm shopping centre, while enhancing the tenant mix, interior and exterior design and customer services. Multi will start the execution phase in the second quarter of 2020 and expects to complete most of the work still in 2020.

Prologis has started the construction of a new, state-of-the-art speculative facility totalling 14,000 square meters at Prologis Park Budapest-Harbor to provide further sustainable space. Scheduled for completion in Q2 2020, the new building will even have its own motorway access.

Similarly to 2017, the Airbnb activity in Budapest showed strong growth (25% y-o-y) in overnight stay in 2018 as well, exceeding 1.8 million. This figure reached 70% increase by the end of last year since 2016, says the latest Budapest city report on Airbnb released by Colliers International and Hotelschool The Hague.

ExxonMobil’s Global Business Services Center has signed a lease, agreeing to occupy GTC’s entire Pillar office building, which is currently under construction and due for delivery early Q1 2022. This is the largest deal in an office building that is already under construction in the history of Hungarian office transactions. CBRE represented ExxonMobil in this record-breaking transaction.

The vacancy rate on the Budapest industrial market reached 2% at the end of Q3 2019. Total demand amounted to 154,825 sqm, indicating a 42% increase from the figure noted in the same period last year. The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial market analysis.