During the Q1-Q3 2016 period total commercial real estate investment transaction volume reached €1.5 billion in Hungary, nearly double the 2015 total volume, a testimony to the sharp liquidity increase – according to JLL Hungary’s latest statistics.The outstanding performance of the market was backed by the strong market fundamentals and the growing investor appetite for the high yielding Hungarian assets. Approximately 45% of the volume was generated by the office asset class followed by retail (29%) and logistics (14%). The remaining deals included a mix of hotel assets and properties for redevelopment purposes.

Hammerson plc and its partners in VIA Outlets, APG, Meyer Bergman and Value Retail, have signed an agreement to acquire, subject to regulatory clearance, four outlet centres across Europe. The retail venues, located close to major cities in Germany, Portugal, Spain and Poland, represent total gross asset value of €587 million and a blended net initial yield of 5.5%.  The transaction takes the total size of the VIA Outlets portfolio to €1.1 billion across 10 assets.

Polish Enterprise Fund VI (PEF VI), a private equity fund managed by Enterprise Investors, has signed an agreement to sell 100% of shares in Profi Rom Food, the largest supermarket chain in Romania, to Mid Europa Partners, a private equity firm focused on buyouts in Central and Eastern Europe. The total equity value of the transaction is €533 million and the transaction is subject to obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals. This is the largest deal ever completed by a private equity fund in Romania and the largest retail deal in the country’s history. 

CTP continues expanding in Central Europe, with the recent acquisition of Westlog DC (Distribution Centre) 10 km from Budapest’s city centre. The park is situated west of the city, directly on the M1 motorway, near the junction of the main north-south M7 and the M0 ringroad.

GLL acquired the multi-purpose heritage building that combines retail-, office- and service functions on 13,750 sqm at Vörösmarty Square in downtown Budapest. The seller of the recently completed UNESCO World Heritage listed premium asset is Hungarian developer Horizon Development.  The property has been added to the portfolio of Bayerische Versorgungskammer and will be managed by Munich-based real estate fund manager group GLL Real Estate Partners.

Marvipol S.A. entered into a preliminary agreement for the sale of Prosta Tower office building in Warsaw. The buyer is an international fund. The seller was represented by Colliers International.

Hotel investment activity in CEE – from the Adriatic Coast to the Baltic Sea – has been booming in the second half of 2016, with numerous hotel properties being on the market and several transactions taking place, as hotel property specialist Christie & Co reports.

Immofinanz is continuing the expansion of its successful Stop Shop retail park portfolio with the acquisition of eight locations in Slovakia and Hungary. The purchase price for these properties totals approx. €79.0 million. The newly acquired retail parks have an occupancy rate of roughly 98% and generate annual rental income of approx. €6.6 million. The transactions will close in several steps, presumably by the end of the first quarter of 2017. Immofinanz‘s Stop Shop portfolio will then cover 66 locations in seven countries with roughly 449,000 sqm of rentable space and a book value of more than EUR 600.0 million. Further locations in Serbia and Poland are currently in the preparation phase for project development. 

Penta Investments has sold its Florentinum office building, the company’s first development completed in the Czech Republic, to Chinese investment group CEFC. Florentinum, a LEED Platinum certified property opened in 2014 and is home to 70 long-term tenants, many of them blue chip companies such as EY, HSBC Bank, Bank of China, Havel Holásek & Partners Law Firm and RSJ Investment Group. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed. 

According to Cushman & Wakefield, commercial real estate investment activity in the core Central European markets of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania reached €6.05 billion in the first three quarters of 2016, a 37% increase y-o-y, albeit with reduced activity during the third quarter. Investment in the CE region slipped back following a strong second quarter. The volume of assets traded totalled €1.4bn in Q3 2016, down over 20% a year ago and half Q2 volumes.