The economical environment for PRS investments in Poland has never been so favourable. However, foreign investors cannot spread their wings because of the general uncertainty, planning difficulties and high debt costs – these are just some of the topics that were covered in a panel discussion with international investors during Living Investment Forum 2022, organised by Property Forum yesterday in Warsaw.

Homes buyers in Romania are increasingly asking for the 15-minute city, while prices of apartments will fall only in specific cases, concluded speakers of the residential market panel during SEE Property Forum 2022, which took place in Bucharest.

Kamil Kowa, Member of the Board and Head of the Corporate Finance & Valuation Department at Savills Poland, talked to Property Forum about the current slowdown in the Polish residential market, PRS funds' expansion and the forecast for private student accommodation in that country.

Q3 2022 saw up to a 30% q/q drop in the number of flats sold on the primary markets of Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Poznań and Łódź. The total number of flats sold in these markets was only 6,600. JLL experts emphasise that the last time such low demand for real estate occurred in Q2 2020 when sales offices were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic wave.

Prices of homes in Romania fell by an average of 1.8% in Q3 2022 compared to Q2 2022, although in large regional cities such as Timișoara, Brașov and Iași the prices continued to grow in this period, according to property platform Imobiliare.ro. 

In the first quarter, second-hand home prices increased by 8.9%, and new ones by 6.6%. As for the second quarter, the figures were 6.3% and 3.3%, respectively, the Central Statistics Office reports. 

Property developer and investor Prime Kapital has unveiled plans for an urban regeneration project in Cluj-Napoca, on a land plot of 17.1 hectares that previously hosted an industrial platform. 

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH has sold two centrally located fully-let residential and student housing assets in Warsaw and Kraków in Poland to institutional investors in Austria and the Netherlands for more than €60 million on behalf of Munich-headquartered AIFM platform Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG).

Prague's residential market is seeing record construction this year, with more housing starts, but demand for apartments is slowing down. On the other hand, however, the growth of housing prices is slowing and mortgage interest rates are rising. This is also why the share of vacant flats supply in the Prague residential market has increased too, says JLL's regular report.

There were only 8,326 residential transactions closed in Hungary in October 2022 which is the lowest figure for the month since 2012, brokerage firm Duna House reports.