Daniela Lazea, Partner and Co-Head of Real Estate at Romanian law firm Biriș Goran, spoke to Property Forum about Romania’s potential to become a relocation base for companies in the region and the real estate market’s ability to surpass €1 billion transactions in 2022.

The Czech state continues to unsuccessfully trying to sell Prague's functionalist Broadway Palace from the 1930s. The Office for Representation of the State in Property Matters (ÚZSVM) offered it for the third time in an electronic auction, this time with a starting price of CZK 1.05 billion (€43.153 million), but no one took part in the auction, a spokeswoman for the office told the Czech News Agency.

Economic uncertainty is beginning to impact investment activity in Europe’s commercial real estate market, as shown by the data recorded for Q2 2022 in the latest Capital Markets Snapshot for EMEA by Colliers. The Q2 2022 assessment also suggests that the forecast of any impacts will vary widely, with a continued appetite for specific sectors and sub-markets

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (pbb) has underwritten an investment facility, totalling €120 million to refinance a logistics portfolio located across Poland for EQT Exeter. This is the second deal that pbb has closed with the EQT Exeter team.

7R, in a joint venture partnership with MFC Real Estate and DIL Polska Baumanagement, has finalized the sale of 7R City Flex Warsaw Airport I to Macquarie Asset Management. The facility includes three buildings, comprising 15,900 sqm, and is fully leased. The value of the transaction is approx. €29 million. This is another transaction between Macquarie Asset Management and 7R. In November 2021, the investor also acquired urban warehouses near Wrocław, Gdańsk, and Łódź. 

Bucharest recorded 10 of the 14 major property transactions closed in the first half of 2022, while the overall volume of investment rose by 6% to €323 million compared to the first half of 2021, according to real estate consultancy CBRE. 

REICO ČS LONG LEASE, managed by REICO IS ČS is acquiring the APS consumer battery manufacturing site located in Gniezno, Poland. The value of the fund's new acquisition amounts to approximately CZK 511 million (€20.4 million). The fund has already added this third property to its portfolio since its inception in May last year.

The investment volumes in Romanian residential projects reached 4.6 billion lei (€933.5 million) in the first quarter of 2022, which was up 50% compared to the same period of last year, according to a report by real estate consultancy Colliers.

The Czech real estate investment volume reached €1.15 billion in the first half of 2022. This was a 60% increase and was mainly led by domestic investors who acquired properties worth more than €607 million. Even the number of transactions in Q2 surpassed Q1 of this year. Domestic buyers were involved in 11 of the 13 transactions in Q2, so the share of the domestic capital increased in total volume to 68%, Savills reported.

The property investment market in Romania totalled €518 million in the first half of 2022, up 30.5% compared to the same period of last year, with retail and office sectors driving deals, according to real estate consultancy Crosspoint Real Estate.