Lev Weiss has been appointed the new CEO of the BIG CEE Serbia.

One of the largest real estate transactions of the last 5 years on the CEE market was inked in Belgrade this year and the Serbian capital is attracting further investor interest. Srdjan Teofilovic, Head of Capital Markets & Investor Services at CBS International, member of the Cushman and Wakefield Alliance, talked to Property Forum about the trends driving Serbia’s investment market.

Belgrade Waterfront developer Eagle Hills has completed structural works on Kula Belgrade. With 168 metres, 42 levels and a total area of about 50,000 sqm, the tower is the tallest building in Serbia and the region.

In the first year of the pandemic, the construction market of the SEE region as a whole remained in the positive, and further expansion is expected until 2023. The only exception is Bulgaria where a harsh transition is foreseen for 2023 when the 2014-2020 EU programming period ends financially. The massive growth experienced in the years before 2020 is not anticipated to return. around 3% growth is projected for 2021 and 2022, and a 3% drop for 2023. The countries with the largest cumulated growth on the forecast horizon are Croatia and Serbia, according to the Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association’s 2021 Summer Construction Forecast Report.

Radisson Hotel Group has announced the opening of Belgrade Art Hotel, a member of Radisson Individuals, located in the heart of the old city. This opening marks the debut of the Radisson Individuals brand, a conversion solution recently launched in Europe in Q4 2020 and complements the existing Radisson Collection Hotel in Serbia's capital city.

Real estate services platform Novaston was an exclusive support agent in the sales process of two retail properties in Serbia between two influential investors in the Balkan region: NEPI Rockcastle and BIG CEE. The binding agreement with the total consideration of the approx. €61 million euros for retail properties Kragujevac Plaza Shopping mall (with a GLA of 22,300 sqm) and Krusevac retail park (with a GLA of 8,600 sqm) was signed in June.

Yovav Carmi, CEO and Ariel Ferstman, CFO of Globe Trade Centre talked to Property Forum about GTC`s recent acquisitions, the sale of the Serbian office portfolio, coping with COVID-19's long-term effects and their new investment strategy.

Colliers announced the end of its affiliation with its partner in Serbia (AVT RE DOO) and Greece (AVTB Private Company), effective immediately.

During the last six years, between 2015 and 2020, the Serbian construction industry rolled out into one of the strongest growth cycles in recent history. The powerful surge in construction outputs surpassed all initial expectations, and there are a number of converging factors behind its formidable result. The recovery after the recession gradually transformed itself into a fully-fledged construction boom, which more than doubled Serbia’s construction output, from €2 billion in 2015 to €4 billion in 2019. Even the pandemic in 2020 didn’t change the very positive outlook, although it did cause a slowdown and negative consolidation of construction outputs by some 5% at constant prices. The expected growth should return in 2021, however. The EECFA (Eastern European Construction Forecasting Association) has released its latest article about the Serbian construction industry, written by Dejan Krajinović, Beobuild Core D.O.O.

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.