The EBRD and Revetas, a specialist real estate investment advisor focusing on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), are joining forces for the acquisition and development of a portfolio of prime business properties in the region. The EBRD is investing €28.6 million in Project Keystone, a portfolio of premium real estate assets located across CEE representing a total gross leasable area of over 173,000 sqm. The total asset value, including gross development value, exceeds €450 million.

Market sentiment remains positive across Central and Eastern Europe, according to the RICS Commercial Property Monitor. Strong demand from tenants and investors persists in almost all market segments but the number of signs that some markets have reached their peak continues to grow.

M7 Real Estate has refinanced a €4.8 million debt facility secured against the Mani Business Centre in Zagreb, Croatia with Erste Bank Zagreb following the completion of M7’s successful asset management strategy for the property.

Immofinanz is driving the expansion of its Stop Shop retail park brand and has now purchased eight retail parks in Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia. The purchase price totals approximately €90.5 million. The newly acquired properties are fully rented and generate an annual rental income of roughly €7.2 million, which represents a gross return of 8.0%. These transactions increase Immofinanz’s Stop Shop portfolio to 80 locations in nine countries with over 567,000 sqm of rentable space and a carrying amount of approx. €800 million. Further acquisitions are currently under evaluation, and two Stop Shops in Poland and Serbia are now in the active development phase.

Orbis SA, an exclusive partner of AccorHotels for Eastern Europe, and Rox d.o.o. have signed an agreement on cooperation which will result in the opening of a Novotel hotel in Zagreb in late 2020.

Real estate professionals surveyed by the RICS in Q2 2018 now believe that the Czech investment market has reached the peak of the current cycle while the Hungarian and Polish markets are also close to peaking. Nevertheless, market sentiment is still positive on both the occupier and investment market in all CEE countries monitored by the RICS Commercial Property Monitor, including Croatia and Romania.

Market players still look positively toward the future of Central and Eastern European property markets but they are visibly less buoyant than they were during most of 2017. Results for Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary are the most positive, while in Romania the picture is rather mixed. All data points to the Czech investment market being in a state close to peaking.

The construction of the €40.4 million (HRK 300 million) Matrix Office Park in Zagreb, Polish real estate developer GTC’s newest project in Croatia, will be completed by 2019, local media reports.

KD Funds, one of the largest and oldest asset managers in South East Europe and Peakside Capital, an international real estate investor, announced the launch of the KD Adriatic Value Fund, Special Investment Fund, the first regulated real estate alternative investment fund (AIF) in Slovenia.

Retail and hotel sectors recorded highest investment volumes in the Croatian commercial property market in 2017. According to information available and Colliers’s estimate, 2017 brought more than €320 million investment in transactions of 22 investment properties. This does not include pending transactions or confidential deals.