Bucharest’s central business district developed around Victoriei Square is registering an upward evolution in office activity, with a historic record-high volume in take-up and positive growth in pipeline stock, as showed by the latest office analysis conducted by Activ Property Services.

According to JLL, CEE's real estate investment transactional volume for 2018 was in excess of €13.23 billion and recorded an 11% increase over 2017 (€11.92 billion). JLL has registered continued appetite from investors for the full range of assets across the entire region. Poland smashed its previous record volume set in 2006 (€5.05 billion) with a spectacular €7.2 billion traded, and secured a massive regional share of 54%. Poland was followed by the Czech Republic (€2.51 billion - 19% share), Hungary (€1.85 billion - 14%), Romania (€900 million - 7%) and Slovakia (€820 million - 6%).

Tower 1 and Tower 2, the first two office buildings of the Globalworth Campus project in Bucharest, have been awarded BREEAM certificates with a rating of 'Excellent'. The certification recognizes the high standards of sustainability and the healthy working environment of the 57,000 sqm of Class A office space in the complex located in the northern part of the city.

MLP Group commenced the construction of its first logistics park in Romania. Work on a 12,000 sqm facility is currently underway. In total, over 22,000 sqm of modern warehousing space will be constructed at this stage of the project. Ultimately, 95,000 sqm of space will be available to tenants in MLP Bucharest West. Sagex Construct has been selected as the general contractor.

Construction works have started on the extension of the Colosseum commercial centre in the northwestern part of Bucharest. Colosseum Mall represents the most important retail development in Bucharest during the last three years, a period during which the purchasing power per capita at the city level increased by almost 20%.

Industrial and logistics developer Element Industrial has received the building permit for ELI PARK 1 and has started the construction works. The park will offer 45,000 sqm of warehouse and office space following an investment of €25 million.

2018 ended with a significant premiere on the local real estate market: Romanian investors ranked second in the generated volumes by nationality. Almost €200 million were spent to buy commercial properties (about a quarter of the total volume), a significant leap of more than five times compared with 2017, according to Colliers International.

Mark Davis has been appointed the new EBRD Regional Director for Romania and Bulgaria and will assume his new role in Bucharest on 1 April 2019. Mr Davis follows Matteo Patrone who has become Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

CTP enters 2019 with the announcement of Ana Dumitrache’s return to the company as Country Head of CTP Romania.

Local real estate developer One United Properties has started the construction of a residential project located on a 3,835 sqm land plot in Bucharest’s Timpuri Noi area, zf.ro reports.