Romania almost doubled its share in the region’s turnover over the previous year and entered the big league, after Poland and the Czech Republic, but before Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria.
In a year severely affected by the pandemic, in which Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary all saw year on year declines in volumes, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria all saw positive trends.
Overall, volumes in 2020 declined by 24% compared to 2019 with the year closing at about 10.4 billion euro.
Poland remained leader in the region, with investment volumes accounting for 51% of the overall CEE6 total with a total value of investment transactions worth 5.2 billion euro.
Czech Republic followed with a 26% share, thanks to a large residential portfolio sale.
Romania completes the top with a 8.5% share and a volume in the area of almost 900 million euro (up by about 40% over 2019).
The transaction completed by NEPI Rockcastle, advised by Colliers, involving the sale of four office projects to AFI Europe accounted for almost a third of the local investment market in 2020.
The office sector was dominant all over the region in 2020 in terms of transactional activity, with a share of 41% of the total volume of investments, followed by industrial and logistics spaces sector (32%) and away from the more challenged retail and hospitality sectors (12%).
Bucharest, highest yields in the region
Bucharest has some of the highest yields in the region for the office sector (7%), compared to at most 4.25% in Prague, 4,65% in Warsaw or 5.25% in Budapest.
Going forward, rents will remain relatively stable, with prime headline still around 18 euros per square meter in the office sector in Bucharest (and an average in the region of 14 euro per square meter).
