COVID-19 is going away very slowly, which is putting pressure on the digitization of residential sales. Solutions that enable digital signatures, online viewings and even online selling are becoming necessary tools for residential developers, says Jakub Licak, Business Development Manager at CEE-based proptech Realpad, who’s responsible for the company's international expansion in Romania and Bulgaria. He talked to Property Forum about his experiences on the Romanian market and discussed Realpad’s expansion strategy.

Office space will continue to shape the company culture and will have a great impact on the collaboration process and the dynamic of decision-making, says Tanya Kosseva-Boshova MRICS, Managing Partner of Park Lane Developments who talked to Property Forum about the company’s development plans and shared her expectations about the future of offices.

The activity on the Bulgarian real estate market was strongly affected by the COVID-19 crisis, but we saw more resilience for the investment and industrial sectors which registered both an increase during the last year. For 2021, the forecasts are still positive for the investment property market and for the industrial development sector, according to the Sofia City Report H2 2020, released by JLL Romania with the support of IPC Partners Bulgaria.

The Q4 2020 results of the RICS Global Commercial Property Monitor continue to point to a challenging backdrop across Europe. Both the office and retail sectors remain under significant pressure, with demand still falling sharply amid the difficult economic climate induced by the pandemic. On a brighter note, supported by structural tailwinds, the industrial sector continues to defy this downbeat overall assessment, prompting respondents to upgrade expectations for rental and capital value growth.

The industrial segment has stood out as the most resilient sector to the crisis and the markets Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria present a huge opportunity for further growth. Boško Tomašević MRICS, Managing Director SEE at CBRE talked to Property Forum about investment market expectations and shared the company’s expansion plans for the Balkans region.

The total investment volume achieved in 2020 in the SEE region amounted to €766 million representing a 17% decline in transaction volume in comparison to the year before, according to CBRE’s market report summarising H2 2020 on the investment market.

JLL announced the first edition of the Sofia City Report, a semiannual publication which provides a detailed view of specific real estate markets in Sofia: office, retail and warehouses. It offers information on the economic situation in Bulgaria, including the investment climate. The report was made with the support of IPC Partners Bulgaria.

The construction sector in Bulgaria, and building construction in particular, was not affected as hard as others by the COVID-19 crisis, according to a report by the Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association.

In the first half of 2020, the supply of modern class A, B and C office space in Sofia increased by 1%, reaching 2,315,600 sqm, according to Colliers International. The recently completed building 3 of Garitage Park accounted for much of the growth in the office stock.

Law firm Kinstellar has successfully represented OTP Bank and its Bulgarian subsidiary, DSK Bank, in negotiating a €25 million loan for the construction and operation of Balkan Business Center, a major office complex in Sofia.