Yovav Carmi, CEO and Ariel Ferstman, CFO of Globe Trade Centre talked to Property Forum about GTC`s recent acquisitions, the sale of the Serbian office portfolio, coping with COVID-19's long-term effects and their new investment strategy.

Globe Trade Centre has decided to sell its Belgrade office portfolio to the Hungarian investor Indotek Group. The proposed acquisition price is €267.6 million, exceeding the book value of GTC’s Serbia portfolio as of 31 December 2020. The agreement will cover the sale of 11 buildings within 5 business parks of a total 122,175 sqm GLA with high occupancy rates, located in the New Belgrade district. Once completed in Q3 2021, the sale will become one of the largest real estate transactions in the last 5 years on the CEE market.

As more people get vaccinated and offices are reopening, companies need to make a decision on how to manage their workforce. Employees that worked remotely for much of the past year will now circulate between work from home and commuting to the office. But do employees really want to work from home or from the office 5 days a week? CEE-based flex office provider New Work believes that the future belongs to flexible workplaces everywhere and they see demand for hundreds of flex office locations across each country in the region.

Cushman & Wakefield recently announced new appointments to its enhanced CEE leadership team. These appointments are to support regional client requirements with the best possible services. Key business areas, including office agency and industrial & logistics agency, have been reinforced with new CEE appointments.

GTC has appointed Eszter Salamon to the position of Transactions Director. Her in-depth sector knowledge and experience in real estate and financial operations will boost GTC’s optimization and expansion goals. As Transactions Director, Eszter Salamon will be responsible for real estate transactions across all GTC markets as the investor plans completion of large-scale transactions in various markets in the upcoming period.

According to Colliers, CEE 2021 year-end investment volumes are likely to reach similar levels to 2020. CEE economies are expected  to accelerate  throughout 2021 and 2022, at an average pace of ca. 4.3% annually

Arcadis has published the annual results of the International Comparison of Construction Costs which demonstrates that the building industry has shown its resistance worldwide during the pandemic. Many governments took advantage of fiscal stimuli to support their economies, which has reflected an increase in infrastructure investment of the public sector. Within CEE, Vienna (#30) has by far the highest construction costs, followed by Zagreb (#64), Bucharest (#65), Sofia (#66), Prague (#66), Warsaw (#70), Belgrade (#72) and Krakow (#75).

The pandemic has caused a lot of change on the market but these changes can easily be viewed as an opportunity for further growth as Jonathan Hallett, Head of Central & Eastern Europe at Cushman & Wakefield demonstrates. He talked to Property Forum about the results of the last year and shared his expectations for the future of work and the CEE advisory market.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has successfully subscribed to a €24.7 million ticket as part of an inaugural five-year €300 million green bond issuance by MAS Securities BV. The firm is wholly owned by MAS Real Estate Inc., an investor and operator of predominantly retail real estate assets that focuses on CEE.

GTC’s rental and service revenues decreased by €3.8 million to €37 million in Q1 2021 from €41 million in Q1 2020. Profit before tax and fair value adjustments for Q1 2021 reached €15 million, up from €13 million in Q1 2020. The company published its financial results for Q1 2021.