NEPI Rockcastle, through its subsidiary, has acquired all the issued shares in the Forum Gdańsk shopping centre from a company ultimately owned by Blackstone-managed funds. The transaction encompassed the repayment of all the asset’s outstanding debt. Forum Gdańsk is a 63,500 sqm GLA shopping centre, situated in Gdańsk, the sixth largest city in Poland by population, with over 470,000 inhabitants.

Berlin-based property developer firm Bauwert AG is entering a strategic partnership with Hungary’s Wing Group, as well as international investment & asset manager Griffin Capital Partners. For this purpose, the three companies signed an agreement under which Wing and Griffin will together acquire 60% of Bauwert’s shares. The remaining 40% will be kept in the ownership of the existing shareholders. Wing Group will have a controlling interest in the company.

Immofinanz is acquiring 17,305,012 shares in S Immo AG from its core shareholder, CPI Property Group, thus obtaining a controlling stake in S Immo of 50% plus one share. The purchase price amounts to €337.5 million or €19.5 per S Immo share. The transaction will be financed through a long-term credit facility provided to Immofinanz by CPIPG. The share purchase agreement was signed on 19 December 2022. The closing of the transaction will take place before the end of 2022. Consequently, Immofinanz will fully consolidate S Immo in the 2022 annual financial statements.

Portiva Group, with a portfolio of wind and solar parks with a total capacity of 30 megawatts, is set to build more solar farms in the Czech Republic. Although its focus in recent years has been on real estate and IT, the company now sees the time as opportune for investment in photovoltaic parks. It plans to build at least three, reports Hn.cz.

Czech real estate fund Investika has decided to take another step in diversifying its real estate portfolio. Its latest acquisitions are luxury properties in Croatia for short-term rentals.

One United Properties has announced the acquisition of three historical buildings in Bucharest with the purpose of restoring and transforming them into a new development of the company - One Downtown.

High energy prices and rising inflation are affecting market conditions across Europe. According to economists' forecasts, the most difficult period will be the coming winter. However, Poland is in a more favourable situation despite rising inflationary pressures, as JLL experts argue in their latest report on the retail market in Poland for Q3 2022. According to Oxford Economics, Poland's GDP will grow by an average of 3.0% per year between 2022 and 2026, well above the average for the EU as a whole and the eurozone (1.8%). In addition, Poland is projected to see the greatest increase in retail spending until 2026. Oxford Economics also reports that retail sales, in real value terms, are expected to grow by 4.6% per annum until 2026, placing Poland among the top European countries.

According to Savills, investment into industrial assets in Europe has continued to reflect the strong performance of the sector’s occupational market. European investment volumes into industrial real estate assets totalled €42 billion over the first three quarters of 2022, an increase of 2% YoY and 50% above the five-year average. Investment volumes in Portugal (595%), Belgium (124%) and Italy (93%) outperformed their five-year averages by the widest margins.

How will the current macroeconomic situation affect investment activity and further development within individual sectors, from offices to industrial and logistics complexes to retail real estate? All this is shown in CBRE's latest analysis of the Czech commercial real estate market, which also provides an updated outlook for 2023.

Savills Investment Management has outlined its global outlook for real estate investment markets in 2023. While next year may prove challenging for all investors, in the context of global market turbulence, Savills IM sees select opportunities in asset classes with strong long-term fundamentals such as urban industrial and logistics, affordable housing and essential retail.