2021 was a year of unprecedented activity of Czech investors and developers on the Polish real estate market. Czech entities are competing with major German, American and Israeli players and so far they are performing very well in the race for the best assets.   

The Czech retail market and physical retail segment remain attractive for retail brands, as the arrival of 38 new international brands last year confirms: this is the highest number in the last three years. This means a 52% year-on-year increase over the 25 new brands arriving in 2020, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

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.