Avison Young has significantly increased its CEE presence in recent months and the company is planning further expansion. Gerry Hughes, Principal and President of Avison Young Europe talked to Property Forum about the firm’s strategy for CEE and shared his expectations regarding the future of the advisory business.

Radisson Hotel Group announced the opening of Hotel Imperial Plovdiv, a member of Radisson Individuals. The newest addition to the portfolio of the Radisson Individuals brand, which initially launched in Europe in Q4 2020, also marks the group’s return to the Bulgarian market.

In February 2021, the N3 building of GTC’s Green Heart office complex in Belgrade has obtained a LEED Gold certificate, thus finalising the certification process for the whole complex. Completed in 2020, Green Heart comprises five Class A buildings providing 46,300 sqm of office space.

Albania remains a dynamic real estate market, growing in both the retail and office sectors. The COVID-19 pandemic had a definite impact in the first quarter of 2020, but with the ease of the quarantine restrictions, the real estate market picked up and recorded higher than usual transaction volumes, particularly in the residential sector. Colliers Albania published its top 5 predictions for the Albanian property market in 2021.

Croatian real estate consultancy firm Spiller Farmer has brokered the sale of a 165,000 sqm land plot in Velika Gorica, near Zagreb, to LogExpert. The new owner plans to build a modern logistics centre of 60,000 sqm on the property.

Slovenian company Iskra has become the new owner of a pharmaceutical industrial/logistics asset in Montenegro, located in Donja Gorica, on the outskirts of Podgorica. In addition to this acquisition, Iskra also bought several pharmacies in Montenegro, ekapija reports.

Take-up on Ljubljana’s office market reached only 46,000 sqm in 2020, one third less than the previous year. Despite strong demand from potential tenants, there is very limited supply available, according to the Ljubljana office market snapshot prepared by S-Invest.

Optim Project Management has been appointed to project manage the construction of a new Continental electronics assembly and manufacturing facility in Novi Sad.

COVID-19 is going away very slowly, which is putting pressure on the digitization of residential sales. Solutions that enable digital signatures, online viewings and even online selling are becoming necessary tools for residential developers, says Jakub Licak, Business Development Manager at CEE-based proptech Realpad, who’s responsible for the company's international expansion in Romania and Bulgaria. He talked to Property Forum about his experiences on the Romanian market and discussed Realpad’s expansion strategy.

Developer AFI Europe completed the second phase of the construction of the Skyline Belgrade mixed-use project, a 3-story building, totalling over 3,800 sqm of prime office and retail space.