Total investments in commercial real estate in Slovakia in 2021 exceeded €750 million which exceeded the volume of investments in the pre-crisis year 2019. Prime yields decreased over the past year, confirming the attractiveness of investing in the commercial real estate market in Slovakia, says Cushman & Wakefield.

Colliers reveals that 67% of EMEA investors (and 60% of global investors) chose quality office assets in major markets as their top strategy picks. European cities like London, Paris, Berlin and Munich have retained their allure and will be in high demand next year.

Duna House has released its monthly transaction estimate, showing that there were 11,422 residential property transactions in Hungary in December 2021. The tally for the whole year shows 150,975 transactions, which marks a 15% growth over 2020.

Czech shopping centre revenues for the first ten months of this year reached a similar level as they did in the same period of 2020. Since April, footfall has been consistently higher than last year. The number of new brands coming to the market has been the highest in the last three years, mostly in the fashion segment, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

A rapid growth in student numbers will drive demand for student housing in the next five years across all larger European university hubs – especially major Spanish and Italian cities, Savills forecasts. Also in Poland, prime PBSA occupancy remains high despite the pandemic and provision of student accommodation is expected to grow soon across Polish cities.

Immofinanz announced its new Net Zero Emission Strategy. Plans call for a reduction of 60% (below the 2019 level) in all greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – and by 2040, the company intends to be emission-free along the entire value chain.

Accolade Industrial Fund confirms its position as the second-largest real estate fund in the Czech Republic as it reaches two milestones in the third quarter. The value of the fund's portfolio exceeded €1 billion. Furthermore, over 2,000 qualified investors are already investing with the fund. The fund's third-quarter performance was 7.36% in the CZK class and 7.86% in the EUR class. The fund's performance reflects the rising price of industrial real estate during 2021. This investment asset has become very attractive to large institutional players whose attention is causing industrial real estate to seek its price level.

Immofinanz has recently received takeover offers from both CPI Property Group and S Immo in the latest chapter of the Austrian takeover saga. During the last couple of years, the three major Austrian real estate companies – Immofinanz, CA Immo and S Immo – have received (and usually rejected) numerous takeover offers with mergers in almost every possible combination also having been discussed. To help its readers keep track, Property Forum has put together a timeline of all the offers that were announced since 2014.

Real estate advisory firm Savills presents a preliminary summary of 2021 and predicts trends for the coming months. The commercial real estate market in Poland is regaining momentum but has changed significantly, reveals Savills. Key trends expected to dominate in the year ahead include rental growth, increasing ESG awareness and a focus on innovation.

The office market is changing due to the coronavirus pandemic, albeit not as dramatically as initially expected. Offices as a concept are definitely not over and working from home is not becoming a lasting standard – it has been confirmed that it has its limitations and that personal contact is irreplaceable. A hybrid model, combining working in the office and at home, will likely be more common. Office space take-up is still below the pre-crisis figures, but the activity on the market has been growing recently. For the time being, the growth has not been enough to justify the growth in rental prices that would be necessary due to an increase in construction material prices, but both can be expected to grow in the future. The crisis has halted the progress of some schemes, so we will not see a major increase in new office stock before 2023. This could result in demand overhang, and thus in increased rents in the years to come, according to Cushman & Wakefield.