After the first wave of the pandemic, continuous communication with tenants has proven to be more important than ever and helped landlords reach solutions in this difficult and unpredictable situation. Yovav Carmi, President of GTC Group’s Management Board and Robert Snow, Member of GTC Group’s Management Board and Chairman of GTC Hungary talked to us about COVID-19’s potential implications for the commercial real estate market and shared their expectations for the future.

Ott Ventures, the private equity arm and fund management platform run by Orco Property Group and MaMaison Hotels & Residences founder Ott Properties, has announced the launch of its first hotel fund, Velvet. The pan-European investment vehicle is targeting total assets under management of €500 million with a planned LTV of 50%. It will invest across Europe with a focus on the main Central European markets of Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary as well as Germany and Austria.

For another quarter in a row, CA Immo has posted a strong operating result and a clearly positive consolidated net income. The organic growth of the portfolio through own project completions and the continuing high occupancy rate of the investment portfolio (95%) resulted in a further strong increase in net result from rent (+10.5% on the previous year). Despite a positive valuation contribution in the 3rd quarter, the negative revaluation result – as a result of the pandemic and its various effects – continues to have a negative impact on consolidated net income. With the addition of a total of three office buildings in Berlin and Munich (including two own project completions and one portfolio acquisition) and the purchase of an office building in Warsaw, CA Immo continued its portfolio growth in 2020.

Six prominent experts gave a 360-degree overview of the regional real estate market in the post-COVID-19 world at the online edition of Hungary’s Property Investment Forum 2020. We summarised the highlights of the discussion, moderated by Tuza Rita, Head of Capital Markets Hungary at JLL.

Immofinanz recorded an increase in rental income and in the results of asset management and property sales during the first three quarters of 2020 despite the COVID-19 crisis. FFO 1 (before tax) was only slightly lower than the previous year at €89.2 million. After an adjustment for the straight-lining of a bond coupon payment in Q1 2020 over 12 months, FFO 1 improved by 10.1% to €92.4 million. The capital measures carried out in Q3 2020 strengthened the equity ratio and reduced the net LTV to 38.4%. The strong cash position of €601.9 million at the end of September was increased to approximately €1.2 billion by the benchmark bond issued in October and an undrawn credit line.

Shopping centre owner NEPI Rockcastle achieved a collection rate of 97% of reported revenues for the first half of 2020 and 90% for the nine-month period ended 30 September 2020. The total value of COVID-19 related rent reliefs and discounts granted by NEPI Rockcastle up to 30 September amounts to €55.6 million. The company published a business update for Q3 2020.

GTC’s profit before tax and fair value adjustments increased to €21 million in Q3 2020 from €15 million in Q3 2019. For the January-September period, 2020’s results were slightly weaker at €52 million compared to the previous year’s €53 million.

According to Savills latest research, total property investment activity in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania for Q1-Q3 2020 was €7.6 billion, the third-highest volume on record, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic. Total investment volumes by year-end are forecast to surpass €10 billion, which would be in line with the five-year average.

A German rating agency Scope Ratings has assigned a first-time issuer rating of BBB-/Stable to Globe Trade Centre S.A. and its subsidiary GTC Real Estate Development Hungary Zrt. GTC Group also announces green bonds issuance within the framework of the Bond Funding for Growth Scheme launched by the National Bank of Hungary. The senior unsecured debt rating is BBB-. The outlook on the ratings is stable.

Partners Group and Northern Horizon have announced the sale of the last two assets, both located in Riga, in their €200 million CEE joint venture to Grinvest, a Singapore-based property and renewable energy investor.