The development of the Private Rental Sector (PRS) in Poland could have been faster, but it is constantly being slowed down by high demand in the residential market. Developers are not interested in selling the whole building to investment funds, because margins and profits are bigger with sales to individual buyers. However, their faith in high returns and great growth potential of Polish rental market is shared also by developers, which are constantly coping with a lack of good plots permitted for residential development in spatial plans. And buildings with services, like senior and student housing or apartments to rent as a service can be constructed almost everywhere.

The group completed transactions worth €206.5 million, as well as attracting record-breaking leases, launching three multifunctional projects and starting with its project of an apartment lease platform, which will deliver over 2200 units to the market. The company currently has a commercial project portfolio of 500 000 square meters and intends to double this number within the next five years.

In 2020, Echo Investment hit records both in sales and handovers of apartments. It managed to sign 1570 sales contracts with clients, what outperformed last year's results by 16%. At the same time, clients received their keys to 1505 apartments, which in turn means a 19% increase compared to 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic did not affect real estate transactions in Romania. During 2020, a total of 602,805 properties were traded, 62,625 more than in 2019, according to the Romanian National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration (ANCPI). 

Liviu Tudor, the Romanian investor who owns the most office space in Bucharest through Genesis Property, bought a former factory for which he paid €3 million, Ziarul Financiar reports citing market sources.

10,354 residential property deals were closed in Hungary in December 2020, according to the latest monthly transaction estimate by real estate group Duna House. This marks a 2% growth over December 2019. 131,460 transactions were closed in total last year, marking a 12% year-on-year decline.

Czech developer Sekyra Group plans to launch the construction of the Rohan City development project in Q1 2021, lidovky.cz reports.

Nexity has announced that sales of apartments in its latest investment in Warsaw - La Praga in Radzymińska St. - has come to an end. The transaction has been sealed by a contract made with a Dutch investment fund Van der Vorm Vastgoed, which acquired all available apartments (more than 80% of apartments in the real estate property). The fund declares that they will be available for long-term rental.

While taking care of problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, office developers in Poland already plan their strategy for the expected supply gap in the years 2023-24. Jeroen van der Toolen, Managing Director CEE at Ghelamco summarises the year 2020 on the Polish office market and explains why professional office space will be a needed commodity in the long run.

The new direction of investing is clearly visible in the commercial real estate sector. Changes in the purpose of investments and building conversions are also on the increase.