In most Central and Eastern European countries the commercial property market is heavily concentrated in the capital city and modern offices in secondary or tertiary cities are virtually non-existent. Luckily, that is not the case in the Czech Republic, where there are cities outside of Prague, most notably Brno, that offer attractive opportunities for international companies. Czech-based developer CTP invited us for the opening ceremony of the new Courtyard by Marriott hotel and showed us the city’s property market.

Deutsche Hospitality’s first hotel CEE hotel is set to open in by 2019. IntercityHotel Budapest will be located in a newly constructed building in forint of the City’s Eastern Railway Station (Keleti pályaudvar). It will have 300 rooms, a restaurant, a bar, a conference area and an underground car park with 200 spaces. 

Hilton has reached a franchise agreement with Accent Hotel Management to open Hilton Garden Inn Budapest City Centre. The 214-guestroom hotel is set to become Hilton’s third hotel in Budapest by 2018.

W Hotels Worldwide, part of Marriott International, announced an agreement with QPR Properties Kft, part of Constellation Hotels Holding Ltd., to debut the W Hotels brand in Hungary with the opening of W Budapest. Located on Andrássy Road, the hotel will be situated directly across from the State Opera House, businesswire.com reports.

TPG Real Estate, the real estate platform of global private investment firm TPG, announced that it has completed the purchase of A&O Hotels and Hostels, the largest fully integrated, privately-owned, hostel platform in Europe. The transaction will help A&O expand and enhance its operations.

Hotel capacities in Hungary will grow by approximately 2,000 rooms over the next two years, which corresponds to 4,000 new hotel beds, so Hungary and in particular Budapest will be prepared to meet the tourism challenges of coming years, according to KPMG's latest analysis. 

Skanska has sold Westin Warsaw, a five star hotel in Warsaw, Poland, to Al Sraiya Holding Group. The value of the transaction is €56 million and the sale was recorded by Skanska Commercial Development Europe in the fourth quarter of 2016. The transaction is expected to be closed in the first quarter of 2017.

Echo Investment has agreed to sell the former Cracovia hotel building in Krakow to Poland’s Ministry of Culture. In the future, the new owner plans to use the site as a location for a gallery of design and architecture.

Blackstone has sold the Hilton Prague Old Town hotel and Gestin Centrum, an adjacent 6,900 sqm mixed use commercial building, to Singapore-based real estate investment group M&L Hospitality. JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality group advised Blackstone on the sale.

CBRE is the first consultancy in Poland to expand its Hotel Investment Department, thus increasing the number of commercial property market sectors serviced. CBRE has for many years now been operating on the hotel market, where the CBRE Hotels business line has been extremely active in Western Europe. Expanding the business in Poland to include this particular sector constitutes a strategic business decision stemming from the growing interest from investors and hotel chain operators.