Portland Trust and its long term joint venture partner Ares Management have purchased Office Park Nové Butovice in Prague 13 for €65 million. The seller was CEE Property Development Portfolio (CPDP 2). Office Park Nové Butovice offers 36,000 sqm of leasable space.

According to its analysis of the Czech industrial & logistics market, CBRE monitors a significant increase in end-user demand and resulting developer and construction activity in the still relatively unestablished location of Northwest Bohemia. Combined with already strong activity in West Bohemia, the region of West Northwest Bohemia currently represents the most active region in the terms of construction activity for the first time in history and even outpacing the Greater Prague Region. The West Northwest Bohemia region will be a driver of new supply in 2017 and together with the Greater Prague area will account for approximately 80% of newly to be delivered space in the Czech Republic in 2017.

Skanska has sold the office building Five in Prague, to a real estate fund managed by TRIUVA Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft for €50 million. The transaction will be recorded by Skanska Commercial Development Europe in Q2 2017, with the transfer of the property scheduled for Q4 2017.

Bank cards play an increasingly bigger role in every aspect of our lives and passengers in CEE countries are becoming increasingly open towards using electronic payment solutions to pay for public transport services. Frantisek Jungr, Senior Business Development Manager for the CEE Region at Visa Europe talks to Property Forum about the experiences he gained during the implementation of electronic ticket systems in the Czech Republic, and while learning about the Czech examples, we also examine the shortcomings of Budapest’s current and future ticket system.

P3 is to start the construction of two new warehouses with a total floor area of 25,500 sqm at the P3 Prague Horní Počernice logistics park to respond to growing demand for space at the park. Once the expansion is completed, the park will have a total lettable area of nearly 380,000 sqm. Scheduled to start in the second half of 2017, construction will be completed at the beginning of 2018.

CTP has opened a new production plant in South Bohemia, built to suit the needs of Yanfeng Automotive Interiors. The company will produce interiors for passenger cars at the plant which spans a total area of more than 23,000 sqm on two floors.

Occupier and investment sentiment continues to be positive across Central and Eastern Europe according to the RICS Commercial Property Monitor for Q1 2017. Similarly to last quarter, Hungary remains the most upbeat market globally with the Czech Republic also performing remarkably well. The picture is slightly more mixed in Croatia and Romania, still, near term momentum remains positive in the two markets.

M7 Real Estate has acquired a portfolio of 11 light industrial assets in Hungary and the Czech Republic, on behalf of M7 CEREF I, from a joint venture between Partners Group and Cromwell Property Group. The portfolio comprises 209,832 sqm, with seven of the assets located in Hungary and the remaining four in the Czech Republic.

LaSalle Investment Management has acquired the River Garden I office complex in Prague’s Karlín business district on behalf of its LaVA mandate for approximately €57 million. The seller is Slovak asset management company IAD Investments on behalf of Prvý realitný fond.

In February, Warimpex announced the sale of a portfolio of eight hotels to the Thai investor U City. On 31 May, the transaction was successfully closed. Warimpex has taken advantage of this positive momentum on the CEE hotel investment market with this portfolio deal and is set to strengthen its capital structure and to position itself for new development projects.