AFI Europe has officially started the development of its first Romanian retail park in Arad. The project will have a leasable area of 29,400 sqm and has already reached an occupancy rate of 70%. 

Romanian company Impact Developer & Contractor recorded sales of 90.3 million lei (€18.5 million) for 110 residential units in the first half of 2022, up 45% compared to the same period of last year.  

As students are preparing to resume their university studies in person, asking rents in large cities have gone up by up to 10% by the end of August 2022 compared to the same period of last year, according to property platform Imobiliare.ro.

Romanian company Eden Capital Development has started the development of the second phase of the Cortina North residential project in Bucharest that will include close to 1,000 apartments, with the first deliveries expected in the second half of 2023. 

Another Prague brownfield will be turned into a residential project. Development group Crestyl will be building on the site of the former Waltrovka in Prague's Radlice district. The plan is to build a total of 170 flats for CZK 1.5 billion (almost €61 million) on the land, which the company bought with a zoning permit from the Red Group at the turn of this year. Preliminary construction work on the Semerínka project should start at the turn of the year and the entire project is scheduled to be completed within three years.

Zeitgeist Asset Management has obtained a loan from Česká spořitelna for the largest ever refinancing of its portfolio in the amount of €113 million (CZK 2.7 billion). In total, it concerns 23 properties with a total value of €220 million, located in various Prague locations. These are mainly residential properties with apartments for rent and private campuses for student accommodation.

Daniela Lazea, Partner and Co-Head of Real Estate at Romanian law firm Biriș Goran, spoke to Property Forum about Romania’s potential to become a relocation base for companies in the region and the real estate market’s ability to surpass €1 billion transactions in 2022.

The fears of a recession are likely to cool down the red-hot real estate market in CEE countries, Erste specialists expect. According to them, this will be influenced mainly by surging inflation, the cost of credit and cooling down of the borrowing, and shrinking of the disposable household income which will also worsen the borrowing appetite in the coming periods. There is a change in the respondent’s behaviour too. Whereas respondents from Poland, Hungary and Croatia are open to buying or building a house, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians are less inclined to do so, say Erste experts in their recent special report.

Property developer Prime Kapital has delivered four out of five apartment buildings in its first residential project in Bucharest. The company has invested €47.8 million in the project that will feature 458 apartments. 

The third and final stage of the Hron Residence project in Zvolen, Slovakia, is now starting to be built. Arkon, the developer of the €15 million project, has announced the final stage launch on its social media.