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Romanian developer Forty Management will open this week, in Bucharest, a public access lagoon, part of Lagoon Park Bucharest project, following an investment of €33 million.

After more than a year of intensive negotiations, the sale and purchase agreement for Budapest Airport Zrt. was signed on Thursday, Hungary's Ministry of National Economy said in a statement. The Hungarian state acquired an 80% stake at a purchase price of €3.1 billion (HUF 1,207.5 billion), and the €1.44 billion (HUF 560.93 billion) loan taken out by the previous owners was extended.

The new Swissôtel Lagoon Budapest hotel will offer 200 rooms and apartments overlooking a man-made lagoon by the Danube River. Romanian property developer Forty Management will oversee the project. The handover is scheduled for 2028.

Remodelling an iconic commercial building and preserving its historic heritage is a challenge. Finding a perfect tenant mix for a long period is an even bigger problem. Property Forum asked Oliver Balogh and Viktor Balogh, founders of Corvin Palace Kft. about the ways the development company met these challenges.

Lifestyle and leisure hospitality company Ennismore announced the signing of SO/ Budapest, the brand’s first destination in Hungary. SO/ Budapest will open in 2026, following extensive refurbishment of both the exterior and interior of the building.

The WING Liget Center multi-building development will involve not only the reconstruction of two buildings listed as historic monuments – serving as the main offices for TV channel RTL – but a brand-new boutique office building named Liget Center Vitrum will also be completed in the autumn. Construction is proceeding on schedule, and the Vitrum building is now structurally complete. Vitrum is a nearly zero energy building and will offer a total of 2,200 square metres of leasable office space over six floors. The building will be handed over in its shell and core stage in autumn 2024.

The vacancy rate at the end of Q1 2024 reached 8.9% in Greater Budapest, representing a 0.3 percentage points increase quarter-on-quarter, while an increase of 3 percentage points was registered year-on-year, the Budapest Research Forum reports.

Prague is the only city in the CEE region to boast a prime high street, a shopping street with only the most prestigious global brands, according to Colliers. This location is Pařížská (Paris) Street, where currently 46 out of 48 available retail units are occupied.

The office vacancy rate increased to 13.8% in the first quarter of 2024, representing a 0.4 pps growth quarter-on-quarter and 1.5 pps increase year-on-year. However, the net take-up showed a healthy 25% growth, the Budapest Research Forum (BRF) reports.

Time Out Market Budapest is set to open in 2025 at Corvin Palace at Blaha Lujza Square. The historic department store first opened in 1926 and has recently been renovated back to its original neoclassical state and redeveloped as a mixed-use real estate property offering retail, leisure and a hotel, timeout.com reports.