Austria (+74%), Romania (+54%), the Netherlands (+46%), and Denmark (+32%) experienced the greatest annual increases in commercial property investment in 2017, as total investment across Europe rose to €234 billion, a 7% increase year-on-year, according to.

Retail and hotel sectors recorded highest investment volumes in the Croatian commercial property market in 2017. According to information available and Colliers’s estimate, 2017 brought more than €320 million investment in transactions of 22 investment properties. This does not include pending transactions or confidential deals.

Hungarian investor Appeninn Nyrt. has announced that holding company Konzun sold over 2 million ordinary shares with the face value of HUF 100, issued by the company, to OTP Real Estate Investment Fund within an OTC transaction.

In 2018 we are likely to see new investors entering the region. However, at a time when the global allocation of capital is changing rapidly, it can be difficult to identify where a new investor is coming from. Marián Fridrich, Head of Transactions at IAD Investments talked market expectations and investment strategy.

Prologis announced the sale of Prologis Park Hegyeshalom in Hungary to Horvath Rudolf Intertransport Ltd, a Hungarian logistics services provider. The transaction includes a fully leased Class A logistics facility totalling 32,300 square metres and 24 hectares of land. Noerr and JLL represented Prologis while Deloitte advised Horvath Rudolf. 

First Property Group unveiled its development plans at the Krakow Business Park (KBP) in Zabierzow, Krakow, which are focused on improving and repositioning the park to drive visitors and investment to it and the local area. This follows First Property Group’s acquisition of the park’s principal operating companies and the agreement of heads of terms for their refinancing with Pekao Bank SA.

GalCap Europe, a Vienna-based international investment and asset management company, acquired the Central Udvar mixed-use complex as its second property after the Merkur Palota in Budapest. The purchase was made on behalf of a separate account for a German pension scheme, administered by Institutional Investment Partners. CBRE has advised GalCap Europe to purchase the building in an off-market deal. The buyer and the seller agreed not to disclose any purchase price details. Legal advice to GalCap Europe was provided by CHSH Dezső & Partner.

Savills has consolidated and reorganised some of its business lines in Poland. It has set up an investment hub providing a comprehensive range of advisory services on the commercial real estate investment market through cooperation involving individual departments.

Skanska has sold Nowa Fabryczna building in Łódź, Poland, to real estate fund manager Niam. It is the developer’s second office project in the city, and the seventh Skanska property Niam has acquired in the Polish regional markets since 2015.

Czech start-up Opifer, which has so far invested in biotechnology and IT start-ups, has acquired the Futurum shopping centre in Brno from Atrium European Real Estate, e15.cz reports.