2018 ended with a significant premiere on the local real estate market: Romanian investors ranked second in the generated volumes by nationality. Almost €200 million were spent to buy commercial properties (about a quarter of the total volume), a significant leap of more than five times compared with 2017, according to Colliers International.

Panattoni Europe will increase the supply of warehouse space in Silesia, the key industrial hub of Central and Eastern Europe. The developer has just bought land for its new investment – Panattoni Park Czeladź III. The construction of the 68,000 sqm complex will commence this quarter, creating new jobs in the region.

CEE real estate developer Futureal Group announced the sale of its rental buildings portfolio in Kaiserslautern, Germany to a professional real estate investment firm listed in Switzerland. Proceeds from the deal will be reinvested in the Group’s portfolio of over 50 ongoing projects throughout Europe.

Mark Davis has been appointed the new EBRD Regional Director for Romania and Bulgaria and will assume his new role in Bucharest on 1 April 2019. Mr Davis follows Matteo Patrone who has become Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

Stable rents and yields unscathed by increasing supply of office and industrial space – this is what Cushman & Wakefield Forton expects to see on the Bulgarian commercial property market in 2019, according to the company’s latest forecast.

2018 was an all-time record year for the real estate investment market in Poland with more than 100 transactions completed with a total volume of over €7.2 billion, reflecting an impressive nearly 45% growth year-on-year, according to Savills.

Hungarian bank OTP reportedly plans to purchase the largest real estate project from Gránit Pólus in the Slovenian capital through the acquisition of project development companies, according to local media. The Emonika project, valued at €250 million, would see the construction of 196,000 sqm of office, retail, residential and hotel space.

ZFP Investments has sold the Florenc Office Center, commonly known as the KPMG HQ building, in Prague, to Shinhan Investment Corp, a Korean based investment manager. CBRE represented the vendor in the sale of the asset. The transaction constitutes the first direct real estate investment in the Czech Republic by a Korean investor.

Fund management company Redside has closed the largest industrial transaction of 2018 in Slovakia by purchasing Trencin Industrial Park for a sum close to €90 million. With this acquisition, Redside enters the Slovak industrial real estate market.

Indotek Group has come to an agreement with CA Immo on the purchase of the 16,500 sqm DunaCenter retail park in the Hungarian city of Győr in November 2018. The seller was represented by Colliers International during the deal.