ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG sustainability

The latest Property Talks event, organised virtually by RICS Hungary, focused on renewable and alternative energy sources and their role in the built environment. Eight real estate experts shared their insight on this topic in the form of six presentations and one panel discussion.

Impact Developer & Contractor has started the construction works of the fourth phase of the Greenfield Băneasa residential compound. This will include Impact's first commercial project, Greenfield Plaza, with 7,258 sqm of space for trade and services and 1,184 sqm of office space. The entire project has a value of €12 million and it will be built with RCTI Company s.r.l. with which Impact signed a contract worth €7.5 million. At the same time, Impact is also investing €500,000 in the green areas of its Luxuria Residence compound located in Bucharest’s Expoziției area.

While in Poland over 20% of investors are favouring projects that have high ESG-related ratings (which is fourth highest figure globally), Hungary and the Czech Republic are the two countries with the highest share (over 40%) of respondents saying that ESG considerations play no role when they evaluate projects, according to the latest results of the RICS Global Commercial Property Monitor.

As part of a new climate strategy, one of the leading German asset managers is also targeting net-zero emission portfolio by 2050 – German investment manager KGAL has committed to becoming a climate-neutral company by the beginning of 2021 by offsetting all greenhouse gas emissions connected to its operations. Emissions calculated per employee will be reduced by 5% annually during the next 10 years. It has also pledged to have a net-zero emission investment portfolio by 2050. The targets are set out in the company’s newly announced climate strategy.

CA Immo successfully placed a €350 million fixed rate senior unsecured green bond with a 5-year maturity and an annual coupon of 1.0%. The issuance was oversubscribed more than 5.4 times at final terms with strong demand by more than 150 investors.

Even though logistics is the real estate sector least affected by the current economic downturn, tenants are still looking to cut costs and this is what landlords need to respond to. Ana Dumitrache, Country Head at CTP Romania, who will be a speaker at our upcoming SEE Property Forum 2020 in Bucharest, talked to us about how COVID-19 has impacted the company’s operations, what tenants are looking for and how an ambitious expansion strategy can be executed.

CTP successfully issued a debut green bond for €650 million on 1 October 2020. CTP’s inaugural green bonds became the largest debut issuance by a CEE real estate company.  The bonds received a strong reception from investors and were several times oversubscribed with a peak order book in excess of €2 billion.

JLL announced the next stage in its ambitious sustainability program by committing to achieve net zero carbon emissions across all JLL-occupied buildings by 2030. The firm also advocates a net zero approach for all its clients and suppliers.

CTP Group recorded a profit of €99 million (more than CZK 2.5 billion) in the first half of 2020, while its Portfolio of Class A property under management grew to over 5.8 million sqm. During the first six months of the year, CTP Group added 268,926 sqm of lettable area to its portfolio, and plans to grow by additional 595,000 sqm by year-end. The pandemic has transformed the nature of demand, but rental incomes increased in the second quarter.

The SES-operated shopping centre Weberzeile located in Ried, Upper Austria, now generates its own environmentally friendly solar power, which is also the case at SES shopping centre Murpark in Graz. Last week, SES Spar European Shopping Centers commenced operation of a 520-kWp photovoltaic rooftop installation, which produces approximately 500,000 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year for its own use and reduces CO2 emissions by 128 tons. The photovoltaic system installed atop Weberzeile is the largest to be mounted by SES to date and is the benchmark for the installation of solar power systems on the roofs of other SES shopping centres throughout Austria.