In Q4 2016 total leasing activity amounted to 133,460 sqm on the Budapest industrial market which marks a 64% rise on a yearly basis. Meanwhile, the vacancy rate reached a new post-crisis low at 8.1% and there is currently no scheme offering more than 10,000 sqm available adjacent space. The Budapest Research Forum published its quarterly industrial market analysis.

CA Immo has completed negotiations with Union Investment Real Estate GmbH on acquiring 49% of shares each in the office buildings Danube House in Prague and Building A of Infopark in Budapest, both so far part of the open-ended property fund UniImmo: Europe. The deal, which has already been closed, will make an immediate positive contribution to long-term profitability by around €3 million.

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.

CPI Property Group anticipates the acquisition of a retail portfolio located in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania from funds managed by CBRE Global Investors. If completed, this can become the largest real estate deal of the region in 2017.

TriGranit appointed the Hungarian office of CBRE with the exclusive leasing of its latest development in Budapest. The Millennium Gardens office building is being constructed alongside the Palace of Arts and the National Theatre, on the Danube side of Soroksári Road. It will offer 37,000 sqm of leasable space and it is expected to be completed by 2019. 

Looking at what is going on in world politics, TriGranit’s CEO finds it difficult to comprehend why many still stress the political risk factor when talking about the Central European real estate market. He’s optimistic about the future and expects further diminishing returns on investment, along with new investors appearing in Budapest. Árpád Török talked to us about plans for developing TriGranit and the future of the real estate market.

Prologis has announced that Prologis European Properties Fund II (PEPFII) has acquired M0 Central Business Park in Hungary from IDI Gazeley. Two newly acquired, 100 percent let, facilities totalling 31,443 square metres will become part of the adjoining 98-percent let Prologis Park Budapest-Sziget, which currently comprises seven buildings totalling 150,000 square metres.

The number of transactions on the Hungarian housing market totalled 128,386 last year, down by about 5% compared to 2015. This, however, is not a sign of a weak market, as it rather reflects an upturn in the sector for new homes. Buyers have been signing a huge number of pre-contracts directly with the developers and that will appear in the statistics only when the properties are taken into use, i.e. in about one or two years.

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. 

During Q4 2016 the total commercial real estate investment transaction volume reached some €270 million in Hungary, pushing the 2016 volume to above €1.7 billion, the highest annual figure since 2007– according to JLL Hungary’s latest preliminary statistics. According to JLL Hungary’s preliminary statistics office transactions generated roughly 48% of the annual investment volumes, followed by retail (27%) and logistics (14%). Hungarian investors generated the highest share of the annual volumes (30%) followed by US-based (20%) and German (14%) investors.