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.

CA Immo has signed and closed the sale of the Zagreb Tower office building to Austrian property company S Immo AG at a 5% premium to H1 2020 book value.

Knight Frank’s Active Capital 2020 finds that cross-border investment into safe-haven locations and ‘near-neighbours’ are set to dominate global capital flows in 2021, as COVID-19 shifts trends in real estate investment and global mobility. 

The Little Genius private school rented a historical monument villa located on Kiseleff Boulevard in Bucharest in order to meet the social distancing requirements imposed by the authorities, the transaction being intermediated by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Czech investment group Portiva and Micronix have acquired the Central Kladno shopping centre in Brno from Crestyl for approximately €74.8 million (CZK 2 billion).

AFI Europe Group contracted a €170 million loan from a consortium of banks consisting of Erste Bank Group, pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, and Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) to acquire NEPI Rockcastle’s office portfolio of in Romania.

Madison International Realty has acquired a stake in the newly developed Chmielna 89 office building in Warsaw’s CBD from the Cavatina Group. The acquisition values the project at over €100 million. Chmielna 89 is fully let to Poland’s largest, PKO BP, on a ten-year lease.

Accolade is investing in another location in the Zachodniopomorskie Province. As part of the first stage of Panattoni Park Szczecin Airport, located in Goleniów, the Accolade portfolio will be expanded with 28,800 sqm of modern warehouse space. The value of the investment is estimated at €21.3 million, and the first tenant of the new space will be Bosch brand. The construction is already underway and the first phase will be completed in the first quarter of 2021. The developer of the project is Panattoni. The project in Goleniów is a natural step in the development of Accolade in the region, after the company has continuously invested in the expansion of Panattoni Park Szczecin, which currently has an area of more than 183 thousand sqm.

Savills Investment Management has acquired a logistics property in Łódź, Poland, and two adjacent distribution centres in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, for a total of c. €52 million. The Polish property was purchased on behalf of the Savills IM European Logistics Fund 2 (ELF 2) portfolio, which now comprises 26 properties. The two Dutch logistics properties constitute the third transaction on behalf of the European Logistics Fund 3 (ELF 3), which was launched in late 2019.