ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG SEE

M7 Real Estate, the pan-European investor and asset manager, announces that it has made two further acquisitions for the recently launched CEREF I fund. The acquisitions in Croatia and Hungary totalling €14 million mark M7's first entry into both countries.

Immofinanz is continuing the expansion of its Stop Shop retail park chain in Serbia. Three new locations will be added in Požarevac, Lazarevac and Vršac, with a total of 23,800 sqm of rentable space. The individual projects are in different stages, but should all be completed before the end of 2017. 

On behalf of the owner, Christie & Co markets for sale a hotel development site in the Slovenian ski region on mount Krvavec, 25 km north of Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana.

Hotel investment activity in CEE – from the Adriatic Coast to the Baltic Sea – has been booming in the second half of 2016, with numerous hotel properties being on the market and several transactions taking place, as hotel property specialist Christie & Co reports.

Large leases and the rebranding of City Center Sofia marked the Bulgarian retail property market in the third quarter. The demand for prime space remained strong fuelled by the increasing consumption in the main cities, while the supply didn’t change. Fashion and shoes, as well as health & beauty were the most rapidly growing categories in terms of new stores. The FMCG sector was driven mainly by the appetite of the fast growing retailers to occupy the niche vacated with the exit of Carrefour and Penny Market, as well as the reorganisation of Piccadilly. Forton has published its Bulgaria retail market snapshot for Q3 2016.

On 4 November 2016, NEPI, through its subsidiary NE Property Cooperatief UA, concluded an agreement to acquire all the issued shares in, and shareholders’ claims against, Granit Polus Laniste d.o.o. from Lobularia Ventures Limited and repay Laniste’s entire outstanding debt. Laniste wholly owns a shopping mall of 62,100 sqm of GLA situated in Zagreb, Croatia, that opened in November 2010, named Arena Centar and adjacent additional land plots of approximately 4.4 ha. The aggregate purchase price for the transaction is €237.5 million and was settled from NEPI’s existing cash resources.

Bulgaria heads the list of the top ten countries in terms of attractiveness to the automotive sector in Europe. This was revealed in the latest research by Colliers and Automotive Cluster Bulgaria, which took place during the second half of 2016.

Central and Eastern European housing markets are over the crisis and prices have once again begun to rise. The general upswing, observed on European housing markets, is supported by a number of factors. Following the economic crisis, GDP has begun to grow once again in most countries and the interest environment is also favourable to borrowing. These both contribute to a recovery in housing market demand, which may then materialise in higher prices. In the case of housing markets in the Central and Eastern European region, significant differences in price dynamics may be observed. Hungary stands out from the field, where a highly significant price rise has been observed in the past two years with the prices of second-hand homes having grown by 29 percent. We take a look at Central and Eastern European housing markets.

The Real Estate Workout department of Erste Group Bank AG, has concluded the sale of the luxury resort Radisson Blu Resort & Spa Sun Gardens to a Chinese investor under the terms of a share deal. The property – one of the largest hotel complexes in Croatia – enjoys a prime beachside location in Dubrovnik.

In the last quarter alone South African investors have spent €1 billion in CEE and it is most likely that they won’t stop chasing higher yields anytime soon. Even though investments in Central and Eastern Europe are generally considered risky by European standards, coming from other parts of the world opportunities in the region may seem rather safe. We report from CEE Property Forum 2016, co-organised by Portfolio Property Forum and RICS, where over 300 visitors and 70 speakers came together to discuss the most pressing issues concerning regional investment markets.