The investment panel at the 2025 CEE Property Forum brought together leading dealmakers to examine how the flow of capital into the region is being reshaped by a mix of global uncertainty and local opportunity. Guided by moderator Philipp Zschaler, Managing Partner and Head of the Real Estate Industry Group at Andersen Germany, the discussion moved beyond headline trends to explore how investor profiles, pricing expectations, and cross-border strategies are shifting as markets across Central and Eastern Europe recalibrate.

While foreign funds are hesitant, domestic Czech capital is not afraid of large acquisitions: from luxury hotels to office complexes. The share of Czech investors in total transactions has reached 78%. Overall, the Czech commercial real estate market posted its strongest half-year results since 2017, according to Colliers' latest report.

ZDR Investments has completed transactions worth CZK 1.8 billion in the first half of the year. It has increased the share of new investments in the group's funds by 80% year-on-year.

In Slovakia, €418 million was invested in real estate in the first half of 2025, comprising a total of 11 separate transactions. This represents a significant 170% increase compared to last year, according to CBRE's report.

The first quarter of 2025 has been marked by extraordinary activity on the Czech commercial real estate market. According to Colliers, total investment volume reached €1.48 billion, already surpassing the full-year 2023 results of €1.15 billion. Several large transactions with a value above €100 million contributed to this record.

The property investment market in the EU reached around €22.8 billion in Q1 2024, down by approximately 26% compared to the same period of last year, although some markets have rebounded significantly in this period, according to an Arnold Investments report.

Higher borrowing costs and the price gap between buyers' and sellers' expectations are some of the reasons why transaction volumes are significantly below the 10-year average level of ca. €10 billion. This is according to a commercial real estate investment volumes survey by Colliers presented at a February meeting of Czech and Slovak investors and other financial experts.

Price and yield moves on the Romanian property market will be influenced in the near future by both the availability and the cost of capital, while the overall volume of deals is likely to fall this year after reaching a 15-year high during 2022, suggest Colliers’ consultants. 

The amount of property investments in Romania totaled €336 million in the first half of 2022, up around 13% year-on-year, while solid pipeline of transactions is under negotiation and could be completed by the end of the year, according to a report of real estate consultancy CBRE. 

Investment transactions totaling over €400 million are in different negotiations stages in Romania, mostly in the office and retail segments, according to real estate consultancy JLL Romania.