Real estate market players are starting to recognise the importance of data but finding the right way to collect, analyse and utilise it is still often a challenge. Matej Leskovar, Managing Director at Slovenia-based software solution provider Imagine d.o.o. talked to Property Forum about this topic in detail.

According to Dr Aleš Pustovrh at the EECFA, which conducts research on the construction markets of 8 Eastern European countries, residential construction boom in Slovenia continues and is set to peak this year. Nevertheless, with increasing interest rates on mortgage loans, residential construction will be facing significantly lower demand in the second half of 2023.

For the first time, Zagreb Property Forum was organised in the Croatian capital, bringing together real estate experts from the local market and beyond. The event confirmed increasing interest by investors and developers for Croatia, especially following the country’s admission to the Eurozone and the Schengen Area. However, given the global macroeconomic climate, uncertainty persists.

The gross sales turnover of a total of 1,800 shops located on the 30 SES Spar European Shopping Center sites in Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic continued to grow in the past year. With sales up 18.5% and a €3.1 billion turnover compared to 2021, SES enjoyed a record year in terms of development since its inception in 2007. In 2022, SES invested in numerous sustainable measures such as the large-scale installation of photovoltaic systems and the ongoing interim expansion of e-charging stations, currently amounting to 175 charging points coupled with extensive LED retrofitting.

Slovak developer Corwin has gained the final building permit for its Ljubljana office project Vilharia. Slovenia's large office complex, which will be built on the brownfield area, is now set to start construction at the beginning of 2023. It will bring 36,000 sqm of prime office space into the centre of the Slovenian capital.

The last two years marked steep growth for the Slovak developer Corwin. With their four new acquisitions, they have grown to be the largest developer in Ljubljana and have sold their flagship project Blumental as one of the largest transactions of the year in Bratislava. In 2022, Corwin also published its first sustainability report.

Former Czech Prime Minister and billionaire Andrej Babiš, who is now facing trial for misuse of EU subsidies, is buying residential land in Slovenia. He has bought a plot of land in the centre of Ljubljana with his investment fund Hartenberg and the Slovak developer Corwin, where up to 400 flats can be built. The transaction, worth an estimated €25 million, would make Andrej Babiš one of the major players on the Slovenian real estate market, reported the investigative server Necenzurirano.si, quoted by the Czech daily E15.cz.

The fears of a recession are likely to cool down the red-hot real estate market in CEE countries, Erste specialists expect. According to them, this will be influenced mainly by surging inflation, the cost of credit and cooling down of the borrowing, and shrinking of the disposable household income which will also worsen the borrowing appetite in the coming periods. There is a change in the respondent’s behaviour too. Whereas respondents from Poland, Hungary and Croatia are open to buying or building a house, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians are less inclined to do so, say Erste experts in their recent special report.

Equinox Nepremičnine d.d., the first public limited company on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange to engage in real estate leasing and development, has just negotiated a strategic 20-year lease on Grand Hotel Union, uHotel and Hotel Lev in Ljubljana. The deal was signed with world-renowned Hotusa Group, for a cumulative rent exceeding €110 million. The operator search was exclusively organised by Cushman & Wakefield.  

Slovak developer Corwin has announced that its office projects in Bratislava and Ljubljana will soon join the list of LEED Zero Carbon certified carbon neutral buildings of which there are only 8 in existence at the moment.