AFI Europe Romania will soon start works on the second phase of the €37 million AFI Tech Park Business Campus project in Bucharest.

Cushman & Wakefield Echinox has been appointed to manage the Ethos office building, situated in the Floreasca area of Bucharest. This is the second mandate for the management of an office building by C&W Echinox in 2019.

In 2018 Globalworth registered an increase of 36% in portfolio value compared to 2017, reaching €2.5 billion, split 51% in Romania and 49% in Poland. Also, during last year, the gross leasable area of the company’s combined portfolio grew with over 250,000 sqm to 1 million sqm. Following the dynamic expansion in Poland and the new developments in Romania, Globalworth’s net operating income (NOI) noted an impressive increase by over 160% and exceeded €133 million.

BNP Paribas Real Estate Romania has signed Property Management and Exclusive Leasing mandates for Hexagon Offices, a Class A office building located in one of the emerging office locations in the city of Cluj Napoca, owned by KÉSZ International Romania. The office building is expected to be completed in June 2019.

According to the latest European hotels trend report by Savills, emerging European tourist cities such as Dublin, Lisbon and Madrid and alternative operating structures such as non-leased operating structures offer higher yielding opportunities for those investors willing to take on more risk.

The most prominent investors of the SEE region shared their projections for the upcoming year at the international investment panel at SEE Property Forum 2019, moderated by Tim Wilkinson, Partner at Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Globalworth announced that Aroundtown SA has acquired an 11.8% stake in the Company. Aroundtown is a real estate company with a focus on properties with value-add potential in central locations in top tier cities primarily in Germany and the Netherlands. With a commercial real estate portfolio worth more than €13 billion, Aroundtown is the largest and highest rated (BBB+ by S&P) commercial real estate company in Germany and the 4th largest in Europe (based on market cap of €8.6 billion).

Cushman & Wakefield Echinox was appointed to manage One Victoriei Center office building in Bucharest (former Bucharest Corporate Center), a representative business centre located in the business centre area of the Capital (CBD).

Investment market momentum is still firmly positive across Central and Eastern Europe but an increasing share of market players feel that commercial property has become expensive in the countries surveyed by the RICS Commercial Property Monitor. Although the majority of the survey’s contributors believe that the market is in the peak phase of the property cycle, growth is set to continue in the coming year.

The local real estate market has begun to attract the attention of major Asian investors, as groups from China and South Korea are exploring the potential to invest directly in the primary commercial markets. It is feasible that the first transaction could occur by the end of this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox consultants.