The Iulius Company commences the construction works for the fourth office building of the total six to be included in the Openville Timişoara mixed-use development. Spanning on a 155 m height and 27 floors, United Business Center 0 (UBC 0) will be the tallest office building in Romania. The Openville project is currently under construction in the proximity of Iulius Mall Timişoara and, owing to the 130,000 sqm of office premises it will create, it hopes to become the main business hub in the west of Romania.

Atrium European Real Estate Limited has entered into an agreement to sell Atrium Militari shopping centre in Bucharest, Romania to MAS Real Estate Inc., for €95 million, representing a 9% premium to book value on 31 December 2017. The transaction is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions precedent which are expected to be finalised by the end of the third quarter of 2018.

Orbis Group, the Eastern European partner of AccorHotels, has officially opened its first three-star ibis Styles hotel in Romania, in the city of Arad, together with its local partner and investor FAB Industry.

Romanian real estate developer Genesis Property will invest €1.5 million in building an outdoor swimming pool within West Gate Business Park in Bucharest. A running and rollerblading track will also be included.

CBRE brokered the sale of the 42-hectare land that where BSH Electrocasnice Manufacturing SRL, a Romanian subsidiary of BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, owned by Bosch Group, will build a washing machine factory. The land is located in Simeria, Hunedoara County.

CTP will deliver another logistics park in Cluj county by the end of this year. The 30,000 sqm CTPark Cluj II will be completed in three phases.

CTP is developing a 20,000 square meter warehouse for home appliances manufacturer Arctic in Cateasca, near Pitesti.

Companies have rented almost 70,000 square meters of office space in Bucharest in Q1 2018, according to JLL. One-third of the demand came from companies that formerly had their headquarters in old, small buildings or in other different from modern buildings (non-competitive stock). This segment of demand increased compared to last year when it accounted for only 7% of the total take-up.

With consumer habits changing rapidly and technology reshaping the entire real estate industry, the only way for shopping centres to stay in the race is to innovate. Ingo Nissen, Sonae Sierra’s Managing Director for Romania talked about the future of retail and the Romanian retail market in particular.

Despite being late in its cycle, the global real estate market is benefiting from strong returns for investors and a positive global economic outlook, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate – The Global Outlook for 2018, an annual forecast of global real estate investor sentiment published jointly by PwC and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). The report notes that in this highly competitive, late-cycle property market, the real estate industry must embrace technology, new business models, and the concept of “space as a service”.