According to the last few months’ most active investor on the Slovak market, investment activity is returning to normal. Martin Šmigura, investment manager of WOOD & Company’s real estate operations in Slovakia, talked to Property Forum about the company’s recent investment deals and shared his market expectations.

Affan Yildirim, General Manager and Board Member at Romania-based real estate developer Anchor Grup talked to Property Forum about business strategy and shared his expectations for the Romanian economy and the property investment market in 2021.

The government’s recently announced measures to curb construction material prices were published in the Official Gazette late on Thursday, including the supplementary mining tax, a new type of tax for certain market players.

Real estate market players in Romania could face new challenges if the current inflation pressures spill into the next years, said executives during an expert panel discussion that marked the launch of Property Forum’s first annual “The 50 Most Influential People on Romania’s Real Estate Market” publication.

According to the new forecast presented by WIFO, the Austrian partner of the Euroconstruct network, construction in the Euroconstruct area is set to register a 3.8% growth this year. Yet, Hungary still awaits negative growth rates this year, although the drop in 2021 is foreseen to be lower than last year.

According to Colliers, CEE 2021 year-end investment volumes are likely to reach similar levels to 2020. CEE economies are expected  to accelerate  throughout 2021 and 2022, at an average pace of ca. 4.3% annually

An increase in European Union funding available to Central and Eastern European governments will boost GDP growth, suppress debt burdens and improve debt affordability, although implementation challenges will hinder gains in some countries, Moody's Investors Service said in a new report.

The volume of Hungary’s construction output in February decreased by 11.7% compared to the January data, based on seasonally and working-day adjusted indices construction output. Aside from the unpleasant surprise of lower output, the volume of orders was also not very rosy. Nevertheless, it would be too early to give up on this year's outlook.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, seasonally adjusted GDP decreased by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU, compared with the previous quarter, according to a flash estimate published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. These declines follow a strong rebound in the third quarter of 2020 (+12.4% in the euro area and +11.5% in the EU) and the sharpest decreases since the time series started in 1995 observed in the second quarter of 2020 (-11.7% in the euro area and -11.4% in the EU). According to the first estimation of annual growth for 2020, based on seasonally and calendar adjusted quarterly data, GDP fell by 6.8% in the euro area and 6.4% in the EU.

The stable 2021 outlook for sovereigns in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) reflects their robust economic growth prospects and strengthened ability to carry and reduce debt, which make their credit profiles resilient to the sharp deterioration of their public finances in 2020, Moody's Investors Service said in a report published today. Ageing populations and structural economic change will remain longer-term challenges for the region.