Romanian construction and logistics company Masterbuild is investing €20 million in a logistics park spanning 16,000 sqm in the Butimanu - Dâmbovița area, near Bucharest. 

In 2021, commercial property investment volumes in CEE continued to trend upwards, increasing 6.9% on 2020. However, they still remained 15% below the five-year rolling average. Industrial and office investment activity predominated, and we saw notable evidence of price improvements with yield compression in all segments, but especially in the industrial sector, where the price growth was almost 20%. Cushman & Wakefield has summarized the 2021 investment activity in the CEE commercial real estate market.

While the future of the office industry was unpredictable in the early days of the pandemic, companies are doubling down on their investments in strategic office locations and preparing for a future in which hybrid work could become mainstream. Large employers still see the office as a central pillar of work arrangements and have made strategic acquisitions in the recent period.

Savills Investment Management, the international real estate investment manager, transacted more than €3.4 billion globally in 2021, including c. €2.6 billion in Europe and c. €670 million in Asia. Globally, transactions included around €2.1 billion of acquisitions and around €1.2 billion of disposals, resulting in a net investment of c. €900 million. The firm now manages approximately €24.8 billion in assets under management (AuM) as of September 2021

CTP has completed the takeover and delisting offer for Deutsche Industrie REIT-AG (DIR), which provides immediate scale in Europe’s largest economy. Germany now represents about 15% of CTP’s portfolio and becomes its third-largest market by gross asset value after the Czech Republic (42%) and Romania (21%).

The Q4 2021 results of the RICS Global Commercial Property Monitor indicate a continued improvement in market sentiment across Europe compared to the previous quarters, with progress particularly evident on the investment side of the market. That said, conditions remain polarised at the sector level, with the latest feedback still signalling a challenging set of circumstances for retail while industrials continue to post robust expectations for the twelve months ahead.

2021 in the residential market in Poland was marked by a deepening imbalance between supply and demand. Developers put up for sale 11,000 fewer units than they sold. Buyers considered flats mainly as a safe capital investment. Had it not been for the pandemic, the slowdown that awaits the Polish residential market in 2022 would have arrived much earlier.

Hunter REIM sold to Centerscape two retail parks located in Warsaw and Inowroclaw, offering ca. 4,550 square meters of leasable space, both assets having the Netto chain as the grocery anchor operator. Avison Young represented the seller in the transaction.

CPI Property Group and a subsidiary of S Immo (CEE Immobilien GmbH) signed an agreement concerning the acquisition of 17,543,937 Immofinanz shares, corresponding to a participation of approx. 12.69% of the total nominal share capital of Immofinanz. The agreement also covers the acquisition of additional shares eventually tendered into the voluntary partial tender offer for shares of Immofinanz published by CEE Immobilien GmbH on 23 December 2021. The purchase price per share amounts to €23.00 cum dividend. Following the transaction, CPIPG has undertaken to improve its takeover offer price (from the previous €22.70) in accordance with the Austrian Takeover Act accordingly.

Robert Snincak, Head of Investment Operations CEE and Krystian Pachowka, Head of Logistics Asset Management CEE at CBRE Investment Management talked to Property Forum about the current investment trends in CEE countries, the rise of the warehouse and PRS markets in Poland and the recent changes in financing conditions.