In a video interview recorded at CEE Property Forum 2025 in Vienna, Günther Artner, Head of Group Commercial Real Estate at Erste Group, reflects on the main banking challenges of 2025, the strategic acquisition of Santander Bank Polska and why he expects another active year for real estate financing across the region.

Central and Eastern Europe’s real estate market continued to show broad activity and evolving dynamics in the third week of February, with multiple reports highlighting leasing momentum, construction growth, investment transactions and sector diversification.

Qualified investor fund Realia Fund Sicav has completed the acquisition of a new retail park in Kralupy nad Vltavou – Kozomín, which is the largest property the fund has added to its portfolio.

Retail developers continue to accelerate expansion plans across Romania, with projects totalling more than 750,000 sqm currently in construction and planning stages for delivery until 2029, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Due diligence platform Drooms has released its Real Estate Trends Report 2026, showing that European transaction times remained stable at 363 days in 2025, compared to previous years of continuous increases.

Romania's commercial real estate investment market recorded approximately €500 million in 2025, down 31% from the previous year, due to the absence of large transactions.

Romanian investors became the most important source of capital on the local real estate market, generating approximately 30% of transaction volume in 2025 and accumulating nearly €1.8 billion in investments over the past decade, according to Colliers' annual report.

In a video interview recorded at CEE Property Forum 2025 in Vienna, Victor Constantinescu, Co-Head of Real Estate at Kinstellar, shares how investors are approaching 2026, why flexibility is becoming essential and how geopolitics is increasingly influencing capital allocation across CEE.

New retail projects continue to focus outside Bratislava, with most developments taking place in western Slovakia, according to the latest analysis by CBRE Slovakia.

Investors in CEE are entering 2026 with higher activity than their Western European counterparts, according to a new survey conducted by CBRE.