The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is supporting the development of the secondary market for green commercial real estate in CEE with an equity investment of up to €50 million, in partnership with Adventum's Penta real estate fund. The partnership will acquire commercial real-estate assets, which will then undergo upgrades to improve their resource efficiency.

The last two years marked steep growth for the Slovak developer Corwin. With their four new acquisitions, they have grown to be the largest developer in Ljubljana and have sold their flagship project Blumental as one of the largest transactions of the year in Bratislava. In 2022, Corwin also published its first sustainability report.

Residential developers in Poland are aware of the importance of ESG but they feel that their customers are often still focused on the price only. The participants of the ESG panel of Living Investment Forum 2022, held by Property Forum in Warsaw recently, agreed that the legal and financial pressure put on the construction industry may not be enough and there is still a lot to be done in terms of education.

Ghelamco has completed the construction of its first three photovoltaic farms in Poland as a part of a program to achieve energy neutrality announced in May this year.

Josef Wiedermann, Managing Director of UBM Development Czechia talked to Property Forum about recent changes, ESG strategies and provided insight into the company’s ambitious plans for becoming the largest developer of timber buildings in Europe.

Starting November 2022, Agnieszka Ciupak joined GTC Poland as Executive Director. In her newly-created role, she will be responsible for all operations of the office sector, including leasing, fit-out, asset management, facility management, as well as marketing and company-wide HR.

Savills forecasts that rising energy prices will be a major challenge for commercial property landlords, managers and tenants in 2023. In response to market expectations, Savills has launched an interdepartmental service line dedicated to improving energy performance and helping identify ways to reduce annual energy consumption in buildings by up to 14%.

The Environment component in ESG is attracting the largest share of investments made by property players, as sustainable buildings have a better position in the market, concluded speakers in the ESG panel at SEE Property Forum 2022, held in Bucharest.

The Warsaw office market registered a minor uptick in the vacancy rate and a constrained development pipeline during the third quarter of 2022, reveals real estate advisory firm Newmark Polska in its latest report.

ESG is rewriting the rules of office leasing with the attitude of landlords, tenants and service providers gradually changing. During a panel discussion recently organised by CEE-based flex space provider New Work at Science Park in Budapest, market experts discussed the topic in detail.