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.

Savills has named Crosspoint Real Estate its associate in Romania as part of its continued expansion across Central and Eastern Europe. Savills and Crosspoint signed a partnership agreement in Summer 2017 with the association status taking the successful relationship to the next level. Recent instructions include advising on the sale of the Bank of Cyprus building from SIF Banat Crişana to a firm belonging to a Romanian businessman in November and securing transactions with land plots with a total value of over €60 million in 2018.

Just before the end of 2018, GTC S.A. signed €94.6 million new loan agreements certifying the financial solidity of the company. The refinancing was granted to three prime projects of the developer and asset manager – GTC White House in Budapest, FortyOne in Belgrade, and Artico in Warsaw.

The Bucharest Court of Appeal has ruled that 224 hectares of land in Bucharest’s Baneasa area, home to some of Bucharest’s largest retail projects and the U.S. Embassy, must return to the state. The decision is not final and can be challenged, zf.ro reports.

Carrefour has once again opted for WDP as its real estate partner for two new WDP sites in Romania (namely in Deva and in Brazi), totalling a surface of around 80,000 sqm. Both development projects represent an investment volume of around €40 million.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending €150 million to Warehouses De Pauw (WDP) to finance the construction of 43 warehouses, all located in Romania’s convergence regions. The new logistics facilities will be rented long-term, with a focus on establishing new logistics or light industrial operations. This will promote employment generation and the EU's supply chain security, resulting in particular from the rapidly growing e-commerce business platforms.

Belgian developer WDP has signed a €45 million deal for the development and lease of 77,000 sqm of logistics warehouse space for the Romanian arm of French retailer Auchan.

Danish facility management company ISS plans to divest its operations in thirteen countries worldwide, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania.

December is a time for Romania to score positive results for sales at supermarkets, hypermarkets or discounters as well as for gifts, offering generous returns for retailers in shopping centres and preferring apparel rather than electronic goods relative to other Europeans. The season’s celebrations are a recurring highlight each year for the office segment as well, as both landlords and tenants invest in promoting the holiday spirit.

Market sentiment remains positive across Central and Eastern Europe, according to the RICS Commercial Property Monitor. Strong demand from tenants and investors persists in almost all market segments but the number of signs that some markets have reached their peak continues to grow.