What's driving ESG investments in 2023? This question was attempted to be answered by the participants of one of the panel discussions at the CEE Property Forum 2023 conference, which was held last week in Vienna. We write about some of the answers they found in the summary below.

The largest transaction on the Czech office market this year took place in Prague. A listed building in one of Prague's most expensive streets, Na Příkopě, was bought from Commerzbank Group by Trinity Bank. The price of the transaction has not been officially disclosed, but it is likely to exceed CZK 2 billion (€82 million), making it this year's largest transaction on the office building market, writes online daily newstream.cz.

Trigema Group is expanding its portfolio of ski resorts. After the ski resorts Monínec in Central Bohemia and Samota near Železná Ruda in Šumava, it is heading to the Krkonoše Mountains, where it is buying the ski resort in Rokytnice nad Jizerou. The price was not specified, but Trigema intends to invest CZK 1.3 billion (€53.4 million) in the area, mainly in the Horní Domky and Studenov parts, writes online daily newstream.cz.

The process of accelerated book-building for Archicom shares has been completed, as a result of which Archicom, Echo Investment and DKR Investment, i.e. companies belonging to the Echo Investment Group, set the sales price of existing Archicom shares and the issue price of 10 million new series D and E shares at PLN 22 per piece. Archicom will use the funds obtained in this way primarily to intensify ​​land acquisitions for further investments.

A global property company, with a strong presence in the Polish logistics market, has acquired from Panattoni three fully commercialized industrial parks, totalling 135,000 sqm for approximately €100 million.

The industrial sector will remain on the radar of investors due to the ongoing nearshoring trend but development should also accelerate across other commercial sector once interest rates start to fall, concluded speakers of the investment trends panel of CEE Property Forum 2023, held in Vienna.

Global real estate - one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions - should become net-zero in less than three decades. With as much as 80% of the predicted building stock for 2050 already in existence today, this best illustrates the scale of the challenge. Meanwhile, the commercial real estate market has not, as yet, officially acknowledged either the costs of necessary property upgrades or the costs of delaying or not taking any action. At the same time, due to a lack of market standards, benchmarks and a system of data collection, valuers can hardly factor ESG risks in property valuations. This impasse has significantly increased the risk of a carbon bubble, says Cushman & Wakefield. 

The interest rate side will be a definitive factor for investments going forward, while investors that have a strong equity base will have more opportunities to snap projects next year, concluded speakers in the opening panel of CEE Property Forum 2023, held in Vienna.

FLE has successfully signed and closed the acquisition of the ca. 12,500 sqm DAFA warehouse and light production facility in Natolin (Grodzisk Mazowiecki Region), located in Warsaw logistic Zone II. The transaction was construed as a sale and long-term lease back. The price has not been disclosed. 

Property Forum published the results of its investment market sentiment survey at CEE Property Forum 2023 in Vienna yesterday. The results, providing an overview of market expectations across the region, are now available online.