The third quarter of the year has slowed down in terms of investment activity in comparison with the previous quarter. Namely, the most sought-after segments have been office schemes and retail parks. Both domestic and foreign investors have been active, with a slightly higher provision of international capital since the beginning of the year, CBRE SEE reports.

Investors' interest in the construction of retail parks in Serbia has not been declining for several years now. Investors are mostly focused on building new facilities in secondary and tertiary locations. As much as 14% of the total offer of retail parks in Serbia is located in the region of central Serbia. The Šumadija region is attracting more and more attention, so the company Peštan announced the opening of a new retail park in 2025 - Arandjelovac Retail Park. 

In a strategic move to strengthen its presence in the Croatian real estate market, ALFI Real Estate Fund (ALFI RE) recently added another gem to its investment portfolio. The acquisition of the Matrix B office building in Zagreb's bustling business district marks a significant milestone for the Fund, propelling its real estate portfolio value to over €100 million.

SEE is still a land of opportunities but things go too slowly. The size of a single country is too small for international institutional investors who prefer to buy large portfolios rather than individual assets. However, sizeable local players were optimistic about the change in foreign investors’ attitudes at the panel devoted to the investment market in this region at CEE Property Forum 2023 in Vienna.

iO Partners, JLL’s preferred partner, has opened a new office in Belgrade, Serbia. From this location, the real estate consultancy will also cover neighboring countries including Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro. 

Industrial developer CTP has leased around 20,000 sqm at CTPark Belgrade City to Mercata VT, the biggest tobacco and FMCG distributor in Serbia. The company will use the warehouse space as its new distribution centre for the next decade. 

SES is refurbishing the King Cross shopping centre in Zagreb, Croatia which it has owned and managed since 2018. Construction work to completely refurbish the centre will begin in 2024 following an investment of approximately €40 million. Completion is scheduled for autumn 2025.

CTP has leased approximately 68,000 sqm of industrial and warehouse space to Mercator, a major Serbian supermarket chain, at CTPark Belgrade City, which will be the largest logistics hub in Serbia when complete.

CBRE has announced the appointment of Ivana Rajković Špes as Country Head for the Croatian market within its Southeast Europe Office (SEE).

The number of photovoltaic surfaces installed on SES shopping malls is constantly increasing. This year, SES has invested in the construction of photovoltaic systems in the five Slovenian shopping centres, namely Aleja, Citypark and Center Vič in Ljubljana, Citycenter Celje and Europark Maribor. The systems, boasting a total output of 4,300 kilowatts, have been in operation since July and August. They cover around one-fifth of the centres’ electricity requirement with a 1,200-ton saving in terms of CO2 emissions. The SES climate objective to fit photovoltaic systems on at least 50 percent of its available mall roof surfaces by 2040 has therefore already been achieved or exceeded to a significant extent in Slovenia. SES is currently operating four photovoltaic systems in Austria. An additional three locations are scheduled to be equipped with these systems by the end of the year.