The owner of East-West Business Center, which is the oldest modern office building of Budapest, has decided to start refurbishment of their landmark property.

TriGranit has completed the sale of two assets. Millennium Towers, an office complex in Budapest, has been sold to CA Immo for €175 million and Bonarka City Center, a shopping mall in Krakow has been purchased by Rockcastle. The developer will remain the property manager of both assets.

This year has witnessed new players entering Central and Eastern European markets which, when combined with investments from the region's traditional players, has further increased CEE investment activity. Colliers, Skanska and JLL has released a joint report that analyses the region’s potential as an investment location.

Futureal Group has announced that their latest retail development in Budapest, Etele Plaza is now in negotiations with a number of anchor tenants and they are hoping to confirm the first brands by end of Q1 2017. Located in the south-western part of Budapest, Etele Plaza is expected to attract up to 40,000 shoppers a day. This will be the first large-scale retail development in the Hungarian capital since the opening of Árkád 2 in 2013.

Futureal Group has successfully refinanced its Corvin Corner office building by signing a credit agreement with Erste Bank Hungary for €10.2 million

Park Atrium – one of the most recognisable Budapest office buildings, leased to Deloitte, ING and Roche - was sold last week. German-based Asset Manager Corpus Sireo - on behalf of one of their managed accounts - has purchased the building from Accession Fund managed by GLL Real Estate Partners for an undisclosed price believed to be in excess of €50 million.

In the last quarter alone South African investors have spent €1 billion in CEE and it is most likely that they won’t stop chasing higher yields anytime soon. Even though investments in Central and Eastern Europe are generally considered risky by European standards, coming from other parts of the world opportunities in the region may seem rather safe. We report from CEE Property Forum 2016, co-organised by Portfolio Property Forum and RICS, where over 300 visitors and 70 speakers came together to discuss the most pressing issues concerning regional investment markets.

The European industrial and logistics investment market experienced a record breaking H1 investment volume this year, despite a slower Q2. In Hungary, the vacancy rate slipped to 6.6%, and developers’ activity is on the rise according to the latest research data of CBRE.

BP has announced that it will be opening a new Global Business Services (GBS) centre in Szeged, Hungary, employing up to 500 people (subject to consultation) there by 2020. 

Last year there has been a significant increase of interest from investors for logistics properties and properties for development, which signals the emergence of the automotive and e-commerce industry as well as the start of large-scale real estate developments – says DLA Piper’s annual Hungarian Real Estate Intelligence Report. According to DLA Piper, the increased acquisition activity from developers will translate into new commercial assets being introduced into the market around 2017 Q4 and 2018 Q1.