Immofinanz CEO Ronny Pecik has signed as agreement to sell his stake in the Austrian company and consequently intends to submit his resignation from Immofinanz’s executive board.

In January 2021, Antoine Grolin, Chairman of Ceetrus and Founding Chairman of Nodi, announced the creation of a new mixed-use property management and development services company, Nhood. The change affects ten countries, including Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine in CEE. The reason for setting up the new company is twofold. On the one hand, the separation of the real estate assets of Ceetrus Property and, on the other hand, the merging of the employees of Ceetrus and Nodi under a unified brand name.

Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk (Tricity) and Wrocław are among the top ten markets for hotel operators in Central and Eastern Europe and in Southern and Eastern Europe, making Poland the regional leader. Hotel operators are also targeting other regional cities across Poland, says global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.

CPI Property Group announced the successful issue of ten-year senior unsecured bonds and hybrid bonds with a total value of €1 billion.

The latest annual report by specialist business property advisor Christie & Co reflects on the themes, activity and challenges of the previous year and forecasts what 2021 might bring across the hotel investment sector in various European countries.

Though significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts, the hotel market sees activity and interest from hotel operators. In the CEE & SEE regions, they are showing interest in Prague, Budapest and Warsaw, with a number of smaller regional cities – mostly Polish – also making the top 30. Operators are confident about market recovery, predicting that smaller cities will bounce back in 2022, followed by capitals in 2024.

For Vienna-based investor GalCap Europe, last year was a busy one with three additional deals closed compared to 2019. Managing Partner Paul W. Hallam talked to Property Forum about the experiences of last year and shared the company’s investment strategy for 2021.

German-focused investor Aggregate Holdings S.A. confirmed that it may be considering a potential acquisition of a stake in CA Immo, which may also include launching a partial takeover offer for shares in CA Immo in accordance with the provisions of the Austrian Takeover Act.

Globally, there is set to be a 50% surge in investment into commercial real estate in the second half of the year, predicts Colliers International in its new Global Capital Markets 2021 Investor Outlook paper. In EMEA, the momentum continues in the industrial and logistics and living sectors which are less dependent on economic growth. Investors are also particularly interested in core office stock, albeit selectively, with some 32 per cent of respondents looking to invest in the sector.

European logistics real estate markets have not suffered last year from the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to fast-growing e-commerce and higher inventory levels of producers, the total expected take-up in 11 European countries of 23.6 million sqm for 2020 is only 3% down compared with the record year 2019. The forecasts for this year are even better with an expected take-up of 27 million sqm – an increase of 14%. Particularly large logistics real estate markets like Germany, France, the Netherlands and Poland are expected to grow substantially.