Česká pojišťovna property fund is reportedly buying the Euro and Astra palaces at the bottom of Wenceslas Square, in the heart of Prague, from Czech investor Tomáš Fiala, owner of the Ukrainian group Dragon Capital, E15 reports. 

M7 Real Estate announced that its first Central European fund for third party investors, M7 Central European Real Estate Fund I (M7 CEREF I), has now completed its final close, reaching its target raise of €60 million of investor capital. This follows investor commitments of more than €35 million at its first close in October 2016.

Caerus Investment Management has announced that on behalf of a private separate account client, it has advised and structured the acquisition of Phase 1 of the Futurama Office Park located in Prague 8, Czech Republic adjacent to the Invalidovna metro station.

€1280 million was invested in commercial real estate in the Czech Republic in the first quarter of 2017. This is the largest ever amount of investment registered for a first quarter. The result is mainly attributed to three major transactions: the sale of the Letňany Shopping Centre the CBRE GI portfolio and the change of the Olympia Brno owner. The Czech National Bank’s exit from currency interventions should not slow the strong demand for commercial real estate down.  

2016’s record-breaking €12.2 billion investment in the real estate sector in the CEE region is likely to be surpassed in 2017 – this is according to CEE Real Estate Investment Compass 2017 published by Colliers International and CMS. The sources of investment flows into the CEE region are also expected to remain diverse in 2017, with Asian and CEE investors becoming increasingly active in the real estate market.

The departure of ICU Medical from the manufacturing complex in the southwestern Slovak city of Vráble, made a modern light–industrial facility available for sale on a vacant possession basis. The complex consists of facility with a gross usable area of 7,000 sqm and 3 ha of available land for further development The new owner, Slovak company TESGAL, provides surface treatments of metal parts used mostly in the automotive and consumer industry. 

Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed Polish property group Echo Polska Properties (EPP) raised approximately ZAR2.2 billion (around €150 million) in an accelerated bookbuilding through the placing of app. 119 million new shares at a price of ZAR18.50 per share. Capital will be used to previously announced acquisitions and for further M&A opportunities in the retail segment within Poland.

Atenor confirmed the closing of the sale of the third building of the Váci Greens campus in Budapest to Hungarian real estate fund OTP Prime Ingatlanbefektetesi Alap and consequently the collection of the full sale price, i.e. €63.75 million. Váci Greens B comprises 25,300 sqm of office space and 399 basement parking spaces. 

With the sale of its 51% holding in the Aerozone logistics park to M7 CEREF I in Budapest, CA Immo has completed the strategic withdrawal from the logistics segment that began in 2012. Over the past few years, almost 500,000 sqm of logistical space in total has been sold in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Germany. 

In 2017, following its international assessment, CBRE has created a survey among real estate investors in Hungary asking them about their market expectations. At the CBRE Investment Breakfast investors turned out to be optimistic about the future. 43% of the respondents stated that the investment market might grow even by one-fifth from last year’s €1.5 billion and 23% stated that this year they might reach their highest turnover ever.