The greatest amount of commercial investment transactions in the region of the Central and Eastern Europe was reported in Czech Republic where the value totaled almost 800 million euro. Poland was presented on the second place with ca. 450 million euro, and Romania – on the third place with ca. 140 million euro. The total value of transactions in the whole region amounted to 1,43 billion euro.
It is going to be a very good year for the investment market in the segment of commercial properties in the Central and Eastern Europe – says Troy Javaher, Chairman in Department for Capital Markets in the Central and Eastern Europe, JLL. – According to our initial estimate, the value of realized transactions in the region reached almost 1,44 billion euro at the end of the first quarter. Interestingly, Czech Republic is a leading investment market in the Central and Eastern Europe after the first quarter and thus it exceeds Poland. Our careful forecast for the whole year indicates that the total value of purchase and sales agreements will be comparable or even higher than in the year 2014.
The highest amount – that is 762 million euro – was recorded in the commercial property sector in the region of the Central Europe in the first quarter of 2015. It indicates an increase by 66 per cent year-on-year. The greatest year-on-year rise of turnover – that is by 200 per cent – was recorded in the warehouse sector (382 million euro). The value of transactions on the office property market was reduced by 80 per cent to nearly 14 million euro.
One of the greatest transactions in respect of value and area in sq. m which was finalized in the Central and Eastern Europe in the first quarter was the purchase of logistic parks in Bucharest (Romania), Błonie and in the neighborhood of Piotrków Trybunalski (Poland) by P3 from CA Immobilien Anlagen AG. The transaction included jointly 467 000 sq. m of space and 165 ha of investment area. Moreover, the biggest transaction of a single property in Poland was the purchase of the Green Horizon complex in Łódź by the fund managed by Griffin Real Estate for ca. 65 million euro.
An outflow of capital from Great Britain, France and Germany to the Central Europe has become a noticeable trend in Europe in recent years. It results from repulsive factors such as very high prices, limited supply of attractive assets and sometimes low activity of tenants, as well as attractive factors like high growth of GDP and consumption expenses, record volumes of lease contracts and possibilities of purchasing the best assets in their class for a lower price in comparison to Western Europe. A crucial and new element which is shaping the demand among tenants is the fact that the Central Europe is becoming a center of technological companies.