A German rating agency Scope Ratings has assigned a first-time issuer rating of BBB-/Stable to Globe Trade Centre S.A. and its subsidiary GTC Real Estate Development Hungary Zrt. GTC Group also announces green bonds issuance within the framework of the Bond Funding for Growth Scheme launched by the National Bank of Hungary. The senior unsecured debt rating is BBB-. The outlook on the ratings is stable.

Hungary’s rental property market had an uneven month as prices were on average 5% lower than a year earlier according to the joint Rent Index of the Central Statistical Office (KSH) and real estate portal ingatlan.com. Rents were down 0.7% compared to August in Budapest in September, the last month of the season, while prices in other regions in Hungary remained level.

GTC has sold Spiral, a Class A office building located in Budapest, Hungary. The sale will generate €41 million of free cash.

In previous quarters the analysts of the EBI Construction Activity Report broadly discussed the negative effects of the pandemic on Hungary’s construction industry. The latest figures also suggest that there is still no improvement in the sector after a weak first half of the year.

While in Poland over 20% of investors are favouring projects that have high ESG-related ratings (which is fourth highest figure globally), Hungary and the Czech Republic are the two countries with the highest share (over 40%) of respondents saying that ESG considerations play no role when they evaluate projects, according to the latest results of the RICS Global Commercial Property Monitor.

A Hungarian real estate fund, advised by VLK Cresa, has acquired the Target Center retail park in Kecskemét, Southern Hungary. The name of the seller and buyer or the purchase price has not been disclosed.

HelloParks, Futureal Group’s recently established industrial and logistics property development and investment company, has acquired its first development plot in Fót, next to the junction of motorways M0 and M3. The 76 ha greenfield investment will house energy-efficient buildings that meet the BREEAM sustainability standard, with the first facility to be completed next year.

Hungarian property investor and developer Wing is expanding its East Gate Business Park, located next to Budapest, with a new 9,200 sqm hall. The handover of the building, which is 30% pre-leased, will take place in the second half of 2021.

Mid Europa Partners, a private equity investor in Central and Eastern Europe, announced an agreement to sell 24% of the issued share capital in Waberer's International Nyrt. to Trevelin Holding Zrt. (member of Indotek Group). It also granted a call option to Indotek over Mid Europa's remaining 47.99% of the issued share capital. The transaction is subject to customary anti-trust clearance and is expected to close by the end of the first quarter 2021.

Market Építő Zrt. has completed the construction of a new parcel distribution centre in Budapest for DPD Hungária Kft. The facility has doubled the logistics company’s domestic sorting capacity.