2015 marked another strong annual performance by Skanska Commercial Development Europe. The company signed final sale agreements for eleven office buildings located in three Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, achieving a total transaction volume of nearly 500 mln EUR for the year. Skanska is now compiling its sales portfolio for 2016 and continues to purchase land for new development projects.
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Skanska Commercial Development Europe continues a pattern of transactional success and market leadership. After a record-breaking year in 2014, when Skanska put nine office buildings up for sale, the company provided the investors with eight new buildings in 2015. According to JLL, transaction volumes for the office sector in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania was approx. 2.4 bn EUR last year. Skanska's 2015 sales activity (11 closed transactions) accounted for over 20% of that total.
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“Last year was an important time for us as we conducted the largest office transaction in the history of Skanska’s CEE activity - a four building portfolio sale, comprising projects located in two Polish regional cities, Krakow and Katowice. It was also the largest transaction conducted in the CEE office market in 2015,” says Adrian Karczewicz, Transaction Director at Skanska Commercial Development Europe (CDE). “This deal, combined with the closing of the Green Horizon, Dominikanski and Malta House transactions, represented 25% of the total office sector volume nationwide, and more than 45% of the sector’s overall volume in Polish regional cities. In addition, three more buildings, located in Prague, Ostrava and Bucharest, found buyers last year too. We saw increasing investor interest in office developments. Despite a slight dip in yields, CEE investment products often provide a higher return than similar assets located in western European countries.”
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“Investors were enticed by factors such as our good leasing results which are a guarantee of long-term and stable returns on investment. In 2015, we signed lease agreements on nearly 65 000 sqm of office space throughout Poland. This is more or less an equivalent of nine soccer fields. Most of this was leased companies from the business services sector. What is interesting is the fact that a large part of this year’s deals was signed with new tenants, that we hadn’t have occasion to cooperate with earlier. A large part of our tenants in 2015 expanded its presence in Poland, and chose our buildings in new locations. This is the evidence that our country is characterized by a good investment climate and regional cities attracts business”, says Arkadiusz Rudzki, Managing Director at Skanska Property Poland.
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Katarzyna Zawodna, Business Unit President of Skanska CDE, adds: "We continue to follow and realize our strategy of continuous, sustainable growth in CEE region. We constantly strive to be the number one choice for tenants and investors. Our extensive global experience and expertise enable us to provide best in class and tailor-made products and services for our business partners. We focus on customer care solutions for tenants and a values-based, transparent transaction process. We are pleased that global players both appreciate the high quality of our office projects and seek us out when looking for new investment opportunities. We strongly believe in all our markets and will continue to further grow our business in all of them, delivering one or two projects annually on each respective market. We are very glad that as a developer we have the biggest regional footprint, covering all important business centers in ten CEE markets. This means we are able to provide sustainable, flexible office solutions for our partners' expanding business operations".
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In 2015 Skanska commissioned four office buildings in the CEE region: Dominikanski in Wroclaw, Silesia Business Park B in Katowice, Green Court Bucharest B and Corso Court in Prague. The company signed leases for more than 110 000 sqm GLA in four countries in 2015. Currently the company has nine projects under construction, seven of which are located in Poland. Skanska Commercial Development Europe is currently developing its sales portfolio for 2016 that will offer buildings located in Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.