Total commercial real estate investment across CEE (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) reached €4.4bn in Q4 2016, a 27% increase on Q4 2015. This took full year volumes for 2016 to just over €11bn, an 11% increase on 2015 (€9.9bn), bucking the wider trend across Europe and on the continent where volumes shrank year-on-year. Cushman & Wakefield Czech Republic predicts a further growth of the region. 

ČS Real Estate fund, the largest and oldest Czech open-ended property fund, managed by REICO, has acquired the Park One office building in Bratislava for €35.6 million from private investment firm Falcon II Fund. 

Belgian developer Atenor announced the sale of building A of the Váci Greens office complex in Budapest to a group of private Hungarian investors. This building is the first of the three buildings built by Atenor on the Váci Corridor.

One of the subsidiaries of Plaza Centers has completed the sale of Suwałki Plaza shopping and entertainment centre in Poland to an investment fund for €42.3 million, which is in line with the last reported book value, the company reports.

Zeus Capital Partners LP, a private equity fund managed by Zeus Capital Management has sold Kambanite Business Centre (KBC), located in Sofia, Bulgaria, to a group of undisclosed European institutional investors. This is the Fund’s largest portfolio investment, which was acquired at the end of 2011.

Echo Polska Properties (EPP) has concluded a preliminary acquisition agreement with two real estate funds managed by Blackstone, to acquire 4 retail properties for €166.57 million. The properties are Galeria Twierdza in Klodzko (€40.67m), Galeria Twierdza in Zamosc (€53.51m), Galeria Tecza in Kalisz (€23.21m) and Wzorcownia Shopping Centre in Wloclawek (€49.17m). 

Investors spent €1.54 billion in 2016 in the Hungarian commercial real estate market surpassing the 2015 level by 107%. Last year both office properties and retail properties were in request, thus CBRE is expecting a similar or even higher turnover for 2017.

2016 reached the volume of €11.8bn in investment markets across Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, according to a research report by Colliers International. Aside from Poland, investment flows in 2017 will be close to or higher than 2016’s.  The retail sector might see continued rental growth and high investment levels across the region.

The sound global and domestic investment climate generated a major push in property investment activity in Hungary reaching the second highest ever registered annual volume of €1.7 billion in 2016, i.e. 133% up from the previous year. The most popular type of assets were offices with a share of 56%, followed by retail at 25%, while industrial deals accounted for 11% of the overall volume.

Total real estate investment volume in the Czech Republic exceeded €3.7 billion in 2016, CBRE revealed. The most notable transactions in 2016 were the sale of P3 Logistics Parks, the Park and Florentinum, with 67 transactions being mediated on the Czech market in total.