Homes buyers in Romania are increasingly asking for the 15-minute city, while prices of apartments will fall only in specific cases, concluded speakers of the residential market panel during SEE Property Forum 2022, which took place in Bucharest.

Almost ten years after becoming the 28th EU member state, Croatia is set to join both the Eurozone and Schengen Area at the beginning of 2023, integrating the country even deeper into the EU. But how will this affect the local real estate market?

Bulgaria’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) aims to facilitate economic and social recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and to create a more sustainable, equitable, and successful economy. It includes a set of schemes not only to restore the economy's growth potential but to boost it, too. In achieving this, several construction projects to increase energy efficiency and decrease CO2 impact are to be implemented in 2023-2026, says Anita Dangova at EPI, EECFA’s Bulgarian research institute.

Panellists were unanimous at the discussion on investments in SEE countries at CEE Property Forum 2022 in Vienna. They agreed that the lack of investment products is the biggest hurdle in the CRE market in that region while developers and banks should rethink their long-term strategies as economic pressure mounts every day.

Prices in Belgrade’s residential market are still showing double-digit increases compared to the previous year. Local real estate consultancy Cordon published a report summarising the key trends driving Belgrade’s residential market in Q2 2022.

British company Hyperoptic has leased 5,000 square meters in the BIGZ business centre, in a transaction brokered by Coreside Savills.

Revetas Capital announced a 29% increase in turnovers and an 18% increase in footfall for the first 8 months at Park Center Sofia, Bulgaria, compared to the same period in 2021.

Hungary's B+N Referencia Zrt. has acquired Bulgarian facility management company i-Facility EOOD. With this new subsidiary, the company is now present in 7 countries in Central Europe. 

GTC signed an SPA to sell its Matrix A and B office buildings in Zagreb to a strong local real estate group from Croatia. This transaction will mark a return on cost exceeding 22% and is about 7% above the book value. GTC’s ability to sell assets well above the book value demonstrates that the current discount to NAV on its share price is not justified.

Property Forum talked to Andrew Sim, Managing Director for Europe and Horațiu Florescu, Chairman & CEO Knight Frank Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece & Serbia, about the segments driving property investments in CEE and the impact of rising inflation and interest rates on transactions.