The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it has subscribed €50 million into a €500 million Eurobond first issuance by NE Property Cooperatief, a company owned by CEE-focused real estate investment trust NEPI Rockcastle.

Aerium, a European real estate fund manager has disposed of three shopping centres in Poland to Newbridge, a Warsaw-based investment & development firm. The portfolio includes CH Czyzyny and CH Bielawy, both opened in 2002 in the cities of Krakow and Torun, respectively, and CH Guliwer, which has been operating in Lodz since 1997. The assets comprise over 72,000 sqm of gross lettable space and are anchored by Carrefour on a long-term lease.

2017 was a record breaking year for the Bulgarian office market with almost 200,000 sqm take-up in Sofia. The investment volume has also been the strongest ever with €1 billion invested in commercial property (land acquisitions included) from which income generating assets hold €870 million. Cushman & Wakefield Forton summarised 2017 on the Bulgarian office, retail and industrial markets.

At ca. €12.98 billion, 2017 recorded a 3.3% increase over 2016 (€12.56 billion) and, for the second year running, set a new record transaction volume for the CEE region. JLL has registered continued appetite from investors for the full range of assets across the entire region.

Mol unveiled its new car sharing service Mol Limo in Budapest which operates a fully electric fleet. 300 Volkswagen up! cars are available for rent at a pay-per-minute basis.

The total investment volume in Slovakia for 2017 was recorded at just under €525 million, with more than two thirds being closed in the second half of the year. The volume is below JLL‘s €600 million estimation as several deals did not close before the year end and will slip into 2018.

In 2017, investments in the Czech Republic totalled €3,274 million as indicated by a Cushman & Wakefield report. Contrary to expectations, they declined only slightly compared with 2016, which was a record year. The biggest transactions in 2017 included the sale of Olympia Brno, the CBRE GI portfolio (Nisa Liberec, Zlatý Anděl and Olympia Plzeň), Metropole Zličín and of the Letňany shopping centre.

Property investment volume for Romania is estimated at almost €1 billion last year, a value ca.10% higher than the one registered in 2016 (€890 million). Romania accounted for 8% of the total investment volume recorded in the CEE region (€12.98 billion, a 3.3% increase over 2016). The growth of the Romanian market exceeds the increase of the CEE volumes, but the local market is still under its potential, according to JLL.

ZFP Investments, the Czech-based subsidiary of Slovak IAD Investments, has concluded the acquisition of the Kotlarska 11 office building in Kraków on behalf of ZFP Real Estate Fund. This marks the investor’s entry into the Polish market.

JLL has represented Grupa Buma on the sales transaction of the DOT Office complex. The project was acquired by Golden Star Estate, an Amsterdam-based investment firm. The value of the transaction is confidential.