Romanian lender BCR, part of Austria’s Erste Group Bank, has reportedly reached an agreement to sell the Bucharest Financial Plaza office building on Calea Victoriei that served as the headquarters of defunct state lender Bancorex.  The buyer is a German investor and the details of the deal will be announced in early December, Economica.net reports.

German group Metro intends to sell and lease back 9 of its stores in Romania to increase its competitiveness and efficiency and to improve liquidity for new investments and developments. The offer also includes 6 stores in Slovakia.

According to the latest Savills research, Prague’s office real estate market is fairly priced despite some minor outward prime yield movement during the first half of the year. This broader continent-wide outward yield movement has helped push the average yield spread between prime European offices and Eurozone government bonds to 325 basis points, more than 100 bps above the historic average.

In the context of the digital transformation growth, Alexandru Boghiu and Radu Gogoașă announce the launch of The Mavers, a digital & tech startup on the real estate market, with an investment exceeding €300,000.

P3 has signed an agreement with Vítkovice, a.s. and VTK NCA a.s. to buy 40 hectares of land in the Vítkovice area in Ostrava. Formerly known as Aglomerace, the area will be used by P3 to build an industrial and commercial district that will include production and storage warehouses, stores, showrooms, offices, and various other facilities. The overall design of the complex is being prepared in cooperation with architect David Kotek from the Ostrava-based Projektstudio.

Romanian real estate developer One United Properties has announced a capital increase of up to €70 million. Following the General Meeting of Shareholders on 28 September, the capital increase was approved at a €380 million pre-money valuation and up to €450 million post-money valuation.  

CA Immo signed and closed the acquisition of Postepu 14, a Class A office building located in the Mokotow district of Warsaw, from developer HB Reavis. The property totals around 34,500 sqm GLA and is nearly fully let to tenants such as AstraZeneca and Samsung Electronics. The purchase price is approximately €87 million, with annual gross rental income of around €6.5 million, reflecting a 7.5% gross initial yield.

Croatia's AZ pension funds have acquired 99.9% of local real estate company M7 Primo for €21 million (HRK 161 million) via a capital increase ahead of M7 Primo's planned listing next year.

Accolade is investing €35 million in the construction of Panattoni Park Bydgoszcz III. With the help of the investor, Panattoni has already completed two modern parks with nearly 90,000 sqm of BREEAM certified sustainable warehouse space in the Bydgoszcz area.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the property investment market in Romania? What are the biggest challenges companies face these days? Is the wait and see period really over in Romania? Four experts tried to answer these questions and more at SEE Property Forum 2020, a hybrid event organised by Property Forum and RICS. We summarised the highlights of the discussion, moderated by Codrin Matei (Crosspoint Real Estate).