The Polish retail market maintains its momentum despite the partial Sunday trading ban. This year’s supply is expected to hit approximately 490,000 sqm, the highest annual level in the last three years. Of that total, 52% will be delivered in cities a population of more than 400,000 while 42% will be handed over in cities with a population of less than 100,000, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest report.

Deputy Mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesić and CEO of MPC Properties Ingo Nissen have officially laid down a foundation stone at the construction site of a new shopping centre in Belgrade with over 43,000 sqm of sales space and a total built area of 130,000 sqm. The project is a joint venture of MPC Properties, the largest investor in the region of South-East Europe and Atterbury Europe, focused on shopping centre investments and retail development opportunities in Europe, which will collectively invest more than €110 million in this project.

One of the most active commercial property developers of Budapest is expanding its portfolio. In addition to several office projects, it started the Hungarian capital’s first retail development in nearly a decade. Tibor Tatár, Futureal’s CEO talked to Property Forum about new projects and the challenges a developer needs to face.

Arena Mall shopping centre in Bacau, a reference for the retail market in the Moldova region, will enter into a comprehensive extension and modernization process that will result in a 60% increase of its leasable area and in the construction of a multi-storey car park.

Futureal Group signed a loan agreement for €150 million (roughly HUF 48 billion) with a consortium led by UniCredit acting as Bookrunner and Facility Agent. UniCredit and Erste Group will finance Buda's biggest shopping centre with equal parts, marking one of the largest shopping centre-related financings in Hungary over the past ten years. The construction of Etele Plaza, with a gross area of 137,000 square meters, is already underway.

NEPI Rockcastle announced the acquisition of 100% of Mammut 2 and 81% of Mammut 1, which jointly form the Mammut shopping centre in Budapest. The aggregate net purchase price for the acquisition was €254 million, according to the company's statement.

South African real estate investment trust Hyprop Investments has acquired a hypermarket adjacent to its shopping centre The Mall in the Bulgarian capital for €23 million back in June.

The first half of 2018 on the Polish shopping centres market belonged to the biggest agglomerations. Over 172,000 sqm of new space was delivered, which constitutes about 75% of domestic supply. At the same time, the demand for retail space was still very high and the level of vacant buildings remained very low.

Oradea Shopping City, the Romanian city’s second largest shopping centre which is currently going through a second bankruptcy, has been purchased by the shareholders of Lotus Center Mall, the city’s largest shopping centre, for €8 million.

Atrium European Real Estate Limited has signed an agreement to acquire Wars Sawa Junior, a prime retail asset located in the heart of Warsaw and in its most prominent high street retail area, for a consideration of €301.5 million. Atrium is to acquire Wars Sawa Junior from PFCEE, a fund managed by CBRE Global Investors, using a mixture of existing cash resources and external financing.