In 2021, commercial property investment volumes in CEE continued to trend upwards, increasing 6.9% on 2020. However, they still remained 15% below the five-year rolling average. Industrial and office investment activity predominated, and we saw notable evidence of price improvements with yield compression in all segments, but especially in the industrial sector, where the price growth was almost 20%. Cushman & Wakefield has summarized the 2021 investment activity in the CEE commercial real estate market.

Savills Investment Management, the international real estate investment manager, transacted more than €3.4 billion globally in 2021, including c. €2.6 billion in Europe and c. €670 million in Asia. Globally, transactions included around €2.1 billion of acquisitions and around €1.2 billion of disposals, resulting in a net investment of c. €900 million. The firm now manages approximately €24.8 billion in assets under management (AuM) as of September 2021

Food retailer SPAR will expand its logistics centre in Czeladź. The facility at MLP Czeladź will be placed in service later this year. Currently, SPAR occupies an area of 8,800 sqm used as a warehouse, cold and freezing rooms, office and staff amenity space. The SPAR logistics centre will be expanded by another 11,200 sqm, the vast majority of which will be used for warehousing, cold storage and freezing purposes. An additional facility will be dedicated to a modern office, which will be expanded by 250 sqm. This phase is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2022.

2021 in the residential market in Poland was marked by a deepening imbalance between supply and demand. Developers put up for sale 11,000 fewer units than they sold. Buyers considered flats mainly as a safe capital investment. Had it not been for the pandemic, the slowdown that awaits the Polish residential market in 2022 would have arrived much earlier.

Hunter REIM sold to Centerscape two retail parks located in Warsaw and Inowroclaw, offering ca. 4,550 square meters of leasable space, both assets having the Netto chain as the grocery anchor operator. Avison Young represented the seller in the transaction.

Real estate consultancy Colliers has appointed Oana Stamatin as ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Chief Officer in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). 

Panattoni revealed that in 2021 there was a huge increase in the space it leased on the Polish market. Over the year, the developer signed approx. 300 lease agreements for more than 3.2 million sqm of space – 1 million sqm more than the previous year. Panattoni’s facilities were chosen by such companies as Zalando, LPP, Media Expert, Carrefour, DHL, DB Schenker, InPost, Solaris and Action. In total, the developer completed 1.85 million sqm of BREEAM certified space last year, while another 2.8 million sqm is under construction.

B+N Referencia Zrt. has taken over Poland-based facility management operator Inwemer. With this new acquisition, B+N Referencia Zrt.‘s highly extensive service portfolio fully covers the Central European region.

7R starts the construction of 7R Park Mysłowice. When finished, the logistics park will have two buildings with a total rentable area of over 59,000 sqm. The first stage of the project will be completed in July 2022.

Robert Snincak, Head of Investment Operations CEE and Krystian Pachowka, Head of Logistics Asset Management CEE at CBRE Investment Management talked to Property Forum about the current investment trends in CEE countries, the rise of the warehouse and PRS markets in Poland and the recent changes in financing conditions.