The investment volume on the Polish commercial property market is estimated to have reached €1.05 billion in Q3 2020. According to Savills, the industrial sector accounted for approximately 70% of that total, which illustrates the current investor preference for logistics properties, especially facilities dedicated to e-commerce.

According to the latest insights from Colliers International, investment activity in commercial property in Europe is expected to rebound to reach €100 billion in Q4, following a robust turn-around in larger, post-COVID deals in Q3. This would take investment volumes for the whole year to around €270 billion, only 14 per cent down on activity in 2019, provided smoother waters prevail and the market isn’t further shocked by external geo-political or macro-economic factors.

The I&L sector in the CEE-17 has become one of the most sought-after asset types since 2019, after offices and residential according to Colliers International, CMS and Randstad. The report revealed that some of the key challenges in this sector include the availability of land and property in locations that meet both the developers and end-user expectations, along with the availability and reliability of utilities, connectivity to transport infrastructure, the availability and skills of the labour pool, and access to investment incentives.

Fifth Wall, the largest venture capital firm focused on real estate technology, has partnered with BNP Paribas Real Estate to launch its business in Europe with the Fifth Wall Real Estate Technology European Fund, its first European proptech fund. The California-based company founded in 2016 has over $1.2 billion under management, raised from industry stakeholders via several funds.

As of September, Omar Sattar, a real estate professional with more than 25 years of experience in the sector at companies like DTZ, Avestus Capital Partners, and Colliers International, has taken over the management of the real estate investment team of the Czech and Slovak investment platform Crowdberry. The company now provides private investors with a greater volume of specific investment opportunities in high-quality residential projects and commercial real estate.

Generali Real Estate’s Core+ Fund has acquired the IBC office building in Prague’s Karlín neighbourhood from local investor Mint Investments for €70.2 million (CZK 1.9 billion). Wilsons provided legal advice for the seller during the transaction.

Tatra banka, a member of the Raiffeisen Bank International Group, has decided to reflect on the latest development in global workplace trends by changing its corporate real estate strategy which currently includes disposal of one of Tatra banka's office buildings on Černyševského street no. 48 in Bratislava.

Local real estate developer Forty Management has acquired a 39,896 sqm plot of land of in the Străulești area of ​​the Bucharest from Butan Gas Romania in a transaction valued at €8.2 million. The developer plans to deliver the Central District Lagoon City mixed-use project with 570 apartments, hotel, offices and commercial space, following an investment of over €100 million.

Hungary’s first-ever ’greenfield REIT’ marked a major milestone for the country’s property market as SunDell Estate Nyrt. has been registered as a regulated property investment company (known as SZIT in Hungary) by the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV). This makes SunDell the first company in Hungary that gained SZIT status nearly upon completion of all the steps of an initial float rather than choosing this form of operations after a substantial stock exchange presence.

Eight regionally renowned experts discussed real estate investment strategies for the post-COVID-19 world at the online edition of CEE Property Forum 2020, organised by Property Forum and RICS. We summarised the highlights of the discussion, moderated by Luke Dawson, Managing Director & Head of Capital Markets CEE at Colliers International.