COVID-19 is going away very slowly, which is putting pressure on the digitization of residential sales. Solutions that enable digital signatures, online viewings and even online selling are becoming necessary tools for residential developers, says Jakub Licak, Business Development Manager at CEE-based proptech Realpad, who’s responsible for the company's international expansion in Romania and Bulgaria. He talked to Property Forum about his experiences on the Romanian market and discussed Realpad’s expansion strategy.

NIPÜF Group has completed its latest warehouse development in its Pécs industrial park, located in Southern Hungary. A long-term lease agreement had been signed for the facility, which comprises nearly 11,000 square meters. The investment volume exceeded €6.8 million (HUF 2.5 billion). The total area of logistics space developed by NIPÜF nationwide is 168,000 square meters.

VGP has launched the construction works for a new technological park near South Bohemian metropolis. VGP Park České Budějovice will be located in a commercial zone named Světlík directly at the edge of the city with excellent road and public transport links to the city centre and direct access to the D3 motorway connecting Prague with the Austrian city of Linz. On a land area of about 37 hectares, the site will offer more than 126,000 sqm of lettable area suitable for logistics and light manufacturing.

Panattoni is to develop its latest production and warehouse plant in the Warsaw area. The company is to deliver 31,000 sqm to Reynaers Aluminium, one of the leading European suppliers of sustainable and innovative aluminium solutions for the production of windows, doors and partition walls. The building is being constructed in Urzut – 30 km from Warsaw – on a plot chosen by the client. The centre will have a clear height of 10 m in the warehouse section and 14m in the production section.

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.