Residential investment sectors are gaining traction across Europe, with the volume of capital targeting student accommodation, the private rented sector and purpose-built age-targeted housing continuing to rise, according to Knight Frank’s European Residential Investment Survey 2022.

The Polish star is shining brightly on the European map of private student housing investments with rising rents on the horizon, said speakers during a discussion panel at Living Investment Forum 2021 in Warsaw, moderated by Martin Varga, Head of Real Estate Business Development at Bonard.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many widespread changes in the booming Polish residential market. Demand for larger, greener apartments and the need to amend real estate law are only a few of them, said speakers during the discussion panel of Living Investment Forum 2021, Property Forum's annual event in Warsaw. 

JLL Hungary has advised the seller on the sale of an operating apartment hotel, Escala Hotel & Suits. The 50-apartment hotel, located in Budapest's Corvin quarter, was sold in August, JLL said in a LinkedIn post.

Mint Investments’ residential fund (MINT I. rezidenční podfond SICAV) has entered into an agreement for the acquisition of four apartment buildings in Plzeň-Skvrňany with developer Trigema Real Estate. Construction of the 100 apartments for rent is scheduled to be completed in Q4 2022. The parties did not unveil the transaction price.

Zeitraum, an international operator of student housing schemes, has just taken over the management of its first dormitory in Poland as Zeitgeist Asset Management, an investor operating on the Polish market for several years, finalised the purchase of a privately-run student hall located in Kraków from NNS. The asset is located at 33 Koszykarska Street and has been operating under the Unibase brand for three years. It can accommodate 345 people in 157 rooms. The first students will move into the building in September. JLL experts supported the investor in the purchase of the asset.

Residential investment volumes across the CEE region have been limited and averaged out annually at just over €200 million in the past 5 years. The balance between private, owner-occupied dwellings and those that are for rent in CEE lean towards ownership according to “The Private Rental Sector: Has it found a home in CEE?” report just launched by Colliers in collaboration with Greenberg Traurig and Kinstellar. From the stock of existing developer/investor-owned, multiple-unit PRS schemes, the Czech Republic is ahead, followed by Poland and the remaining countries behind that. 

Swedish company Heimstaden is entering the Prague rental market. It has acquired the first 164 units under construction in Prague's Holešovice district as part of the Pergamenka project from developer FINEP.

Heimstaden subsidiary, Heimstaden Bostad AB, is to buy a newly-built residential portfolio with 2,496 homes in Poland for €305 million (SEK 3.1 billion) from leading Polish residential development company, Budimex.

Michał Okoń, Managing Director of Zeitgeist Asset Management in Poland talked to Property Forum about the forecasts for the PRS market in Poland, subscription services and the impact of the pandemic on the rented apartment segment.