HB Reavis has successfully sold two Warsaw office buildings to Savills Investment Management (Savills IM) who acted on behalf of a global pension fund client. Offering ca. 53,000 sqm, Buildings C and D of Gdanski Business Center are now entirely owned by the global pension fund.

Investment volume on the Romanian market in the first half of 2018 amounted to approximately €386 million, down 27% from the same period of the previous year, when the investment market reached a value of €530 million, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox calculations and estimates. This decline comes amid a substantial number of transactions that had not been fully completed by June 30, while their eventual closure in the second half of the year will push the market to a level of transactions comparable to that achieved in 2017, of almost €1 billion.

JLL and LaSalle Investment Management published the latest edition of the Global Real Estate Transparency Index - GRETI. The world's most transparent markets include the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, France, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, Ireland, Sweden and Finland.

With the growth of the Bucharest office market to 2.3 million sqm, office buildings become more and more important in the recruitment and retention of employees. The new wave of employees is more demanding in terms of office life concepts and expects a building to offer, besides a modern working space, a community to belong to. According Colliers International Romania, in the coming years, property management services will influence the level of employee satisfaction.

In H1 2018, gross take-up on the office markets of Brno and Ostrava reached 45,600 sqm and 18,900 sqm, respectively, representing a significant yearly increase in both cities.The Regional Research Forum announced the Brno and Ostrava office market figures for H1 2018.

Skanska has sold Mill Park, a two-building office project in Budapest, to the real estate fund of Erste Alapkezelő Zrt., one of the subsidiaries of Erste Asset Management GmbH, for €100 million. This is the second acquisition from Skanska in Budapest that the purchaser has made following the Nordic Light transaction in 2016.

JLL Slovakia announced that as of 1st of August, Barbora Dermeková MRICS, has been promoted to Head of Valuation department with overall responsibility for valuation and appraisal services in JLL Slovakia.

S + B Gruppe AG has acquired the Jabłonowski Palace historic office complex in Central Warsaw from Commerz Real. The property offers 17,000 sqm of leasable space and 170 parking spaces.

Investment flows into the CEE-6 region rose 4% y-o-y in H1 2018, marginally exceeding the pace of 2017’s record year, according to Colliers International’s latest report.

Colliers International Romania advised East Balkan Properties plc in the selling of its office portfolio consisting of four buildings with a total area of 9,047 sqm, situated in strategic locations in the capital. The acquisition was made by Adam Europe, the group that purchased a while ago the Phoenix Tower and Construdava Business Center office buildings, following two transactions that were also advised by Colliers.