Travel restrictions and the inability to meet in person have caused a lot of headache for many market players but in many cases, it also provided certain types of investors with an advantage. Pavel Streblov, Business Director at Penta Real Estate talked to Property Forum about the company’s development and investment strategy and shared his expectations for the year ahead.

Office space will continue to shape the company culture and will have a great impact on the collaboration process and the dynamic of decision-making, says Tanya Kosseva-Boshova MRICS, Managing Partner of Park Lane Developments who talked to Property Forum about the company’s development plans and shared her expectations about the future of offices.

The construction of a new building in the BudaPart mixed-use project in Budapest has started. As Mihály Schrancz, Managing Director of developer Property Market Kft., said earlier in an interview with Portfolio in December, the company has signed an agreement with the Radisson chain for a mixed-use development comprising a four-star hotel and office space. The Radisson Hotel Budapest BudaPart, to be built as part of the BudaPart Downtown project, will be operated by the Radisson Hotel Group international chain.

Slovak company KLM CHG intends to build a new retail park near Chorvátsky Grob in the Bratislava Region with three separate buildings, following an investment of about €6.5 million.

Hungarian residential developer Cordia plans to hand over a record number of homes this year in Hungary. Thanks to an expanded government family support scheme and the re-introduction of a 5% VAT rate on residential property, the company expects sustained strong demand and will therefore increase its offer by more than 800 new homes as part of several developments. Work is continuing uninterrupted while protective measures are observed, with full online customer service introduced last year.

Trei Real Estate’s development portfolio grew by 33 percent to €1.2 billion in 2020 from €900 million in 2019. The sum total breaks down into €1.0 billion in residential real estate and c. €200 million in retail real estate. The proprietary portfolio of Trei maintained its total of c. €1.2 billion and it includes 349 assets.

Czech development group Horizon has a record year behind it, despite the uncertainty and difficult conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the company's total revenue from the sale of 337 units in five different projects reached €100 million (CZK 2.7 billion). Horizon plans to build around a thousand more units this year and will put another 550 apartments on sale.

OTP Bank announced that it is granting a loan of approximately €9 million to Oasis Retail Development & Consulting, for the construction of the Prima Shops Sibiu retail park.

On Thursday, 11 March, SES Spar European Shopping Centers opened S-Park Kaposvár, a new retail park in Southern Hungary. As a result of a renewed lockdown in the country, only those stores that are deemed essential for the provision of basic goods and services to the population have been allowed to open. These are a 6,800 sqm Interspar store, a 600 sqm dm drugstore and a 150 sqm Ofotért optical retail store. S- As soon as official Hungarian regulations permit, all other stores located at S-Park, such as Hervis, Deichmann, Euronics, Pepco, and Kik will go into full operation. The segment and shop mix, which includes 10 stores, covering a leasable area of 11,200 sqm, will deliver a comprehensive range of brands and services to Kaposvár and the surrounding region.

CTP is starting the construction of 80,000 sqm in Vecsés, a strategic location near Budapest Airport. With the market-leading 250,000 sqm under development in Hungary and high demand of the logistics and industrial space due to its large undersupply in the entire CEE region, CTP will reach the target of a 1 million sqm portfolio in the country already by the end of 2022, a year ahead of the originally projected forecast. CEE’s largest industrial developer already manages 10 parks in the size of 520,000 sqm in the country.