Governments worldwide have been gradually forging greater transparency in real estate markets, addressing growing demands from investors and the public to deliver significant change. JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index reports slow but steady progress driven by increased regulations and new technology.

One of the most active industrial and logistics developers of the region has announced major expansion plans for Hungary this year. CTP hopes to increase the value of its Hungarian portfolio to €320 million by the end of 2018 from the current €250 million. Rudolf Nemes, CTP’s Country Manager for Hungary talked about changing tenant needs and challenges on the labour market.

Cushman & Wakefield has expanded its Project & Development Services (PDS) team, to include a new Design & Build (D&B) platform. The new European service line is headed by Glyn Evans for the CEE region, based in Prague. Andrew Frizell, Partner and Head of Project Management CEE is leading the new service line in Poland supported by Glyn Evans.

19 % of all existing shopping centres in the Czech Republic have been refurbished to date. Further revitalizations are yet to be completed, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Romania ranks 6th in the top destinations in the data centres market in Europe, while the Nordics and the Netherlands occupy the first positions, according to Savills’ new Data Centre Investment Index. The number of data centres is multiplying to accommodate the surging demand for data storage. Thus, the need to have smaller scale domestic facilities to comply with data and privacy laws is set to lead to an uptick in activity across all of Europe.

Revetas, a specialist real estate investment manager focusing on the CEE region, together with funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, announced it has acquired TriGranit from TPG Real Estate, the real estate platform of global alternative asset firm TPG. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

BNP Paribas Real Estate in CEE announced the appointment of Marcin Klammer as CEO, effective on June 4th, 2018.

Political risk seems not to be affecting the performance of CEE markets. Members of the investment panel at the Portfolio-RICS Valuation & Investment 2018 conference in Budapest are confident about the future of the market and view industrial/logistics and retail as the most attractive asset classes.

Digitisation and automation are transforming the property business, not just in Western Europe but in CEE markets as well. 200 people came together at the second Prague Property Forum 2018, a conference organised by Property Forum and RICS, where an international group of speakers discussed the effects of technology on the property business.

Immofinanz doubled the results of operations to €35.5 million in the first quarter of 2018 (Q1 2017: €17.8 million). Rental income rose by 3.3% to €59.0 million. The results of asset management increased by a sound 14.1% to €45.0 million following a substantial reduction in property expenses. Both the results of property sales and the results of property development turned clearly positive: the results of property sales improved to €3.5 million (€-6.0 million) and the results of property development to €1.8 million (€-5.8 million).