Diófa Fund Management has announced the purchase of Europark shopping centre in Budapest from Unibail Rodamco. The acquisition is a result of a one year long and constructive cooperation between the parties and was entirely funded by own capital. Due to new investment fund restrictions it is highly possible that this was the first and last shared deal on the market.  

The face of commercial property development in Bucharest has changed a lot over the past decade. Developers, investors, tenants and landlords have come together from all over Romania to talk about the office and retail markets at SEE Property Forum 2016, co-organised by Portfolio Conferences and RICS. We report from Bucharest.   

Focus Estate Fund acquired Galeria Sandomierz retail centre in Southeastern Poland from Euro Real Estate Investments LLP. The buyer was represented by Cushman & Wakefield and JLL acted on behalf of the seller.

Horizon Development’s re-conceptualized historic building Váci 1 in Downtown Budapest has fully opened. The 13,750 sqm UNESCO World Heritage listed neo-classicist palace - constructed between 1911 and 1915 - is home to the newest flagship store of H&M.

Warsaw-based developer Echo Investment has concluded two loan agreements worth over EUR 317 million with Berlin Hyp, ING Bank Śląski and Helaba – Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen. These investment loans will be used to refinance four office and seven retail projects.

The total stock of retail parks in Poland totals 1 million sqm GLA (approximately 90 commercial facilities). The 250,000 sqm GLA of retail parks are located in cities of up to 100,000 inhabitants. Retail parks play the role of everyday shopping centres in the small cities. The volume of transactions of retail parks in the cities from 2010 to 2015 amounted to EUR 82 million. It constitutes 30% of the general number of retail project transactions in these locations – according to the report “Small cities, big shopping?” which was created in cooperation of international advisory company Colliers International and global research company GfK.

Cushman & Wakefield announced that now it is the property manager of Union Investment’s two retail properties in Poland: Sarni Stok and Ferio Konin shopping centres.

TriGranit has started its first year backed with a new owner, TPG Real Estate. In Q1 2016, new leases and renewal agreements reached 25,777 sqm GLA, the average occupancy rate is over 95% in TriGranit managed assets and the company has 20,000 sqm GLA office development in progress. Due to the strong performance of the BPO sector in the region, the company plans further office developments in the near future in each of its core countries: Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. 

According to Colliers International's latest market research the Croatian real estate market experienced several significant investments in the retail, office and hotel and hospitality sectors in 2015. While the retail and office segments are experiencing upward pressure on rental prices, the industrial market, despite being the least developed sector, saw increased activity.

Atrium European Real Estate, owner and manager of shopping centres and retail real estate in Central and Eastern Europe has announced the appointment of Scott Abbey as Group Head of Leasing.