Iceland, Sweden and Norway show top potential for hyperscale and cloud-scale data centre investment, followed closely by Denmark and the Netherlands according to research from Savills. The CEE region is also becoming more important in strategic plans for key players, with Poland having the potential of being in its heart.

Mint Investments has established a new real estate fund which will target people interested in investing in the resi-for-rent sector. MINT rezidenční fond SICAV plans to acquire rental residential buildings in large Czech cities, mainly in Prague and Brno. The fund completed its first €19 million (CZK 500 million) acquisition in the country’s second-largest city – Mint Living Brno Campus comprises 120 apartments as well as office and retail space.

Zeitgeist Asset Management is expanding its portfolio of flats for rent in Poland. JLL advised the investor on the purchase of the property located at 34 Czyżewskiego Street in Gdańsk-Oliwa. The project is being carried out by a Tri-City developer – the BMC group.

Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, has launched the Invesco Real Estate European Living Fund, an open-ended fund investing in pan-European residential assets.

Data centres are becoming an important segment of commercial real estate and the COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be an impulse for its accelerated growth. There are currently 115 data centres in Poland, of which the highest number is located in Warsaw (35), Katowice and Kraków (13 each). Axi Immo anticipates the market to develop further, especially following the decision by IT giants Google and Microsoft to add Warsaw to their list of global cloud regions, with a pledged investment of $2 billion and $1 billion respectively over the coming years. Axi Immo experts have prepared a report on the Polish data centre market, its requirements and specific features.

There was a monumental €26 billion (£23.5 billion) investment into the European data centre sector for the first half of 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19, according to a report by Knight Frank in partnership with DC Byte. This is over four times the $5 billion annual average figure and a colossal increase on last year’s $2 billion investment volumes. Take-up in H1 2020 was also 50% higher year-on-year at 282MW.

Student Depot, owned by Kajima Student Housing Limited in partnership with Griffin Real Estate Partners, announced the opening of its first facility in the university city of Gdańsk, Student Depot Kolobrzeska.

Student.com, the world’s leading marketplace for international student housing, and Bonard, the global market research experts for student housing, see 2020 as a year of change, as international students have broken with traditional ways of booking student accommodation. Changes in demand, room type and lead time have all taken place as the world and the global higher education sector figure out the ‘new normal’.

Cordia International Zrt. has acquired UK developer Blackswan. Cordia financed the transaction by using funds collected from the bond issuance under National Bank of Hungary’s Bond Funding for Growth Scheme. The acquisition allows Blackswan to deliver a £550 million project pipeline across the West Midlands

The first building of the Resi4Rent project, being part of the Warsaw Brewery, has obtained its occupancy permit. In the all-purpose part of Warsaw's Wola district, revitalized by Echo Investment, Resi4Rent has developed 450 apartments for long-term rent. The first tenants have been moving in.