Real estate professionals surveyed by the RICS in Q2 2018 now believe that the Czech investment market has reached the peak of the current cycle while the Hungarian and Polish markets are also close to peaking. Nevertheless, market sentiment is still positive on both the occupier and investment market in all CEE countries monitored by the RICS Commercial Property Monitor, including Croatia and Romania.

Market players still look positively toward the future of Central and Eastern European property markets but they are visibly less buoyant than they were during most of 2017. Results for Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary are the most positive, while in Romania the picture is rather mixed. All data points to the Czech investment market being in a state close to peaking.

The construction of the €40.4 million (HRK 300 million) Matrix Office Park in Zagreb, Polish real estate developer GTC’s newest project in Croatia, will be completed by 2019, local media reports.

KD Funds, one of the largest and oldest asset managers in South East Europe and Peakside Capital, an international real estate investor, announced the launch of the KD Adriatic Value Fund, Special Investment Fund, the first regulated real estate alternative investment fund (AIF) in Slovenia.

Retail and hotel sectors recorded highest investment volumes in the Croatian commercial property market in 2017. According to information available and Colliers’s estimate, 2017 brought more than €320 million investment in transactions of 22 investment properties. This does not include pending transactions or confidential deals.

Hystead Limited, a UK company co-owned by Hyprop Investments Limited (Hyprop) and PDI Investment Holdings Limited (PDI), has acquired a 90% interest in two Croatian shopping centres. The purchase consideration net of €154.4 million asset-based finance is €129.1 million, of which Hyprop’s effective share is approximately €77.5 million. The two malls, namely City Center one Zagreb West and City Center one Zagreb East, are located in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. The transaction is conditional upon approval of the Croatian competition authority and is expected to close at the end of March 2018.

In 2017 approx. 90% of the total investment volumes in the commercial real estate were recorded in retail and HTL on the Croatian market. Most of the investment and development activity came from the investors already present on the market. Newcomers were mostly focused on distressed/value-add or brownfield opportunities in the HTL sector. Retail and HTL will remain the most active sectors in terms of investment and development volumes in 2018, Colliers projects.

Aberdeen Asset Management has sold the King Cross shopping centre in Zagreb to SES Spar European Shopping Centers. The transaction price has not been disclosed.

Residential markets are on the rise all over Europe. There are barely any countries where prices haven’t begun to increase since the crisis. Property Forum took a closer look at the Central and Eastern European region, to see which countries have seen the highest growth. Croatia is one of the countries where prices began to grow later rather than sooner, but this means that it may become a new hotspot for investors looking to profit from house price growth in the region.

Occupier and investment sentiment remains positive across all Central and Eastern European countries tracked by the RICS Commercial Property Monitor. Results for Q2 2017 show that Hungary and the Czech Republic continue to post the strongest overall results. The vast majority of respondents expect new investors to enter the market with the presence of local and CEE investors predicted to increase across the region in the year ahead.