Occupier and investment sentiment continues to be positive across Central and Eastern Europe according to the RICS Commercial Property Monitor for Q4 2016. Hungary and the Czech Republic remain the most upbeat markets, with Bulgaria and Croatia also gaining momentum. In Romania the pace of growth seems to be slowing down, although sentiment and projections continue to be broadly positive.

In accordance with its development strategy, Orbis Group enters Bosnia and Herzegovina with signature of a franchise agreement for MGallery by Sofitel Tarcin Forest Resort & Spa in Sarajevo region, Bosnia. The investor of the hotel is Tarcin International Development Company d.o.o. 

Israeli real estate developer AFI Europe plans to invest €200 million euro in the construction of a residential and shopping complex in Belgarde, the Serbian capital’s mayor Siniša Mali announced. 

According to JLL, almost €900 million were invested into Romanian property in 2016, 35% more than in the previous year. 2016 has been a record breaking year at a country level all over CEE with the highest ever volumes recorded in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and second best ever results recorded in Poland, Hungary and the SEE region.

M7 Real Estate, the pan-European investor and asset manager, announces that it has made two further acquisitions for the recently launched CEREF I fund. The acquisitions in Croatia and Hungary totalling €14 million mark M7's first entry into both countries.

Immofinanz is continuing the expansion of its Stop Shop retail park chain in Serbia. Three new locations will be added in Požarevac, Lazarevac and Vršac, with a total of 23,800 sqm of rentable space. The individual projects are in different stages, but should all be completed before the end of 2017. 

On behalf of the owner, Christie & Co markets for sale a hotel development site in the Slovenian ski region on mount Krvavec, 25 km north of Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana.

Hotel investment activity in CEE – from the Adriatic Coast to the Baltic Sea – has been booming in the second half of 2016, with numerous hotel properties being on the market and several transactions taking place, as hotel property specialist Christie & Co reports.

Large leases and the rebranding of City Center Sofia marked the Bulgarian retail property market in the third quarter. The demand for prime space remained strong fuelled by the increasing consumption in the main cities, while the supply didn’t change. Fashion and shoes, as well as health & beauty were the most rapidly growing categories in terms of new stores. The FMCG sector was driven mainly by the appetite of the fast growing retailers to occupy the niche vacated with the exit of Carrefour and Penny Market, as well as the reorganisation of Piccadilly. Forton has published its Bulgaria retail market snapshot for Q3 2016.

On 4 November 2016, NEPI, through its subsidiary NE Property Cooperatief UA, concluded an agreement to acquire all the issued shares in, and shareholders’ claims against, Granit Polus Laniste d.o.o. from Lobularia Ventures Limited and repay Laniste’s entire outstanding debt. Laniste wholly owns a shopping mall of 62,100 sqm of GLA situated in Zagreb, Croatia, that opened in November 2010, named Arena Centar and adjacent additional land plots of approximately 4.4 ha. The aggregate purchase price for the transaction is €237.5 million and was settled from NEPI’s existing cash resources.