Penta Real Estate has acquired unused land in Florence from České dráhy for CZK 234 million (€9.565 million). A new district is to be built on the brownfield site near the main thoroughfare, which will seamlessly connect to two buildings near Masaryk railway station, newstream.cz reports.

Real estate investor and developer GTC has recorded a like-for-like rental revenue growth of 6% in the first nine months of 2023 compared to the same period of last year. At the same time, the gross margin from rental activity slightly rose to €92 million.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is boosting the development of green commercial real estate in the Western Balkans, with a debt package of up to €100 million to be used by BIG CEE for the company’s regional expansion.

Erste Group Bank AG has granted a new loan to Cavatina Holding S.A., this time for the realization of Cavatina’s flagship project in Wroclaw. The financing, which was initiated back in October, will ultimately provide the Polish developer with funds for refinancing the costs of the Quorum D office building (up to €25 million) and for further financing of the Quorum A construction (up to €20 million), as well as an additional €3 million to cover VAT. The multifunctional Quorum complex, rising on the banks of the Oder River, is the largest project of its kind in the city.

Cushman & Wakefield has released a new report on the student housing market in Poland. Supply of public and private halls of residence fails to keep pace with growing demand. In addition, halls of residence remain very popular among students in Poland despite rising rental rates, which in turn is making the PBSA (Purpose-Built Student Accommodation) sector attractive to international investors.

Over the past decade, Hungarian real estate investors have successfully expanded outside of their home market. Firms such as Wing, Futureal, Adventum, Indotek and others have become major players in many European countries, mainly Poland and Romania. They managed to expand via acquisitions of both companies and projects. Part of their funds came from bond issues in Hungary within the Bond Funding for Growth Scheme of the National Bank of Hungary. We have prepared a timeline of the notable transactions and an overview of the market’s key players to provide a better understanding of this trend.

Stokado, a company owned by Redefine Properties and Griffin Capital Partners, has acquired Top Box, a self-storage rental company. As a result, Stokado has added 4,500 sqm to its portfolio of operating assets and a further 4,500 sqm to the development pipeline.

Indotek Group has announced the strategic acquisition of Galleria Porta Siena on LinkedIn. Galleria Porta Siena, a prime commercial property located in the heart of Siena, joins the group's growing portfolio of Italian retail assets.

In the first half of the year, there was a sharp decline in the volume of real estate investments in Poland. Despite the market recovery at the end of summer, the total volume in Q1-Q3 2023 amounted to only €1.7 billion. After the first half of the year with few portfolio transactions, in the third quarter, there were already four - in the warehouse and retail sectors, but none of them exceeded the value of €100 million. Interestingly, despite the turmoil, the Polish investment market welcomed 3 new players this year. Avison Young Poland summarizes the property investment market in Poland in Q3 2023

Property Forum is excited to announce the results of its first biannual investment market sentiment survey focusing on the Romanian market which was conducted ahead of SEE Property Forum 2023. The results, providing an overview of market expectations across sectors, are now available online.