Wing Zrt. has acquired a retail portfolio which includes the EuroCenter Óbuda shopping centre as well as two properties in the regional city of Szombathely. The company has over ten years of experience developing and managing retail properties and plans to carry out value-enhancing investments across the new portfolio with a particular focus on the Buda shopping centre. Wing intends to invest in improving the shopping centre’s existing strengths for both shoppers and tenants.

The 145-room ibis Styles Budapest Airport Hotel, the first airport hotel in Hungary with a direct terminal connection, constructed in a development project by Wing, opened for business at the beginning of January. The 6,600 sqm hotel is located approximately 200 m from Terminal 2, and is connected to it by a covered walkway.

The development of Hungary’s largest office building to be constructed in a single block has reached an important milestone: the new Telekom Headquarters building is now structurally complete. Developer Wing Zrt, has customised the 100,000 sqm building fully in line with the specific needs of the Magyar Telekom Group.

Hungarian developer and investor Wing has purchased the Európa Center Business and Logistic Park, located in the northernmost part of Budapest, next to the M0 ring road. Wing plans to further develop the park which has been renamed Login Business Park.

An international investment consortium comprising Wing, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing and CC Real has sold the West End Business Center office building in Budapest to OTP Property Investment Fund.

Eight months after earthworks began and the foundation stone was laid, all the floors of the first airport hotel in Hungary with direct terminal access have been constructed, and the highest point of the structure has been reached. During the traditional topping-out ceremony, the managers of developer Wing Zrt. and Budapest Airport announced that the hotel is due to receive the first guests at the end of this year, as planned.

Wing is transforming the Material Center building in Budapest, which until now has operated as a shopping mall, into an office building. The building, which has an area of over 20,000 square metres, will be fully converted and renovated to a high standard, to be reborn as the Skylight City office centre. The preparatory works have already begun, and offices are already available for rental in the building.

Diófa Asset Management has purchased the South Pest Business Park from Wing Zrt. The new owner is Magyar Posta Takarék Property Investment Fund, which is Hungary's second largest domestic open-ended fund. The city logistics scheme, located in the 9th district, is 90% occupied.  The South Pest Business Park was transacted for app. €29.1 million (HUF9 billion).

The foundation stone for the new Magyar Telekom Headquarters has been laid in Budapest on 15 November. The 58,000 sqm office building is expected to be completed in the second half of 2015 and will be leased by Magyar Telekom for at least 15 years. Upon completion it will become the largest single-block office building in Hungary.

The Budapest commercial property market has seen a real turnaround over the past two years. Demand is evidently strong for quality office and logistic space in many parts of the Hungarian capital, including its airport. Budapest Airport has an area larger than London Heathrow and ambitious long-term plans that aim to attract a wide range of companies, including cargo and logistics operators. René Droese and Réka Sebestyén, responsible for the property business of BUD, talked to us about the airport’s development plans.