The first year of the pandemic brought many lessons for all entrepreneurs and business executives. With plans and expectations upside down, many companies have had to adapt to new realities, regardless of the field. One of the big winners of the crisis was retail park operators that now plan heavy expansion in the coming years. Property Forum takes a look at Romania’s retail park pipeline.

There were 14,569 residential property deals made in Hungary in February 2021, according to the latest monthly transaction estimate by real estate group Duna House. This marks the highest transaction number of the past ten years. This many homes have not changed owners in a month since early 2011.

There were no new completions on Zagreb’s retail market in H2 2020 but a number of brands have opened new stores, according to a market report by Cushman & Wakefield | CBS International Croatia.

According to Knight Frank’s The Wealth Report 2021 released today, private capital has been undeterred by the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued to invest in commercial real estate around the world. The volume of private capital invested globally was circa $232 billion - 9% above the ten-year average, albeit down on 2019 levels.

Despite the slowdown in activity in the first half of 2020 due to COVID-19 and the earthquake that hit Zagreb in April, the Croatian capital’s office market was very active in 2020 with total leasing activity amounting to 55,000 sqm, according to a market report by Cushman & Wakefield | CBS International Croatia.

Commercial property investment volume in the Czech Republic amounted to €797 million in H2 2020 with 60% of the H2 transaction volume (i.e. €478 million) being for properties located in Prague, according to Savills research.

In Q4 2020, dwellings' prices in Slovakia increased by 7.3 % compared to Q4 2019, while prices of new dwellings increased by 6,6 % and prices of used dwellings rose by 7.8 %, the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic announced.

Logistics developer and investor VGP announced a record net profit of €370.9 million for 2020 which is an 80.4% y-o-y increase. The company announced its financial results for 2020.

NEPI Rockcastle has published its condensed consolidated financial results for 2020, according to which the retail landlord’s net rental and related income was €323 million last year, 19.4% lower than in 2019.

The Q4 2020 results of the RICS Global Commercial Property Monitor continue to point to a challenging backdrop across Europe. Both the office and retail sectors remain under significant pressure, with demand still falling sharply amid the difficult economic climate induced by the pandemic. On a brighter note, supported by structural tailwinds, the industrial sector continues to defy this downbeat overall assessment, prompting respondents to upgrade expectations for rental and capital value growth.