The robust trade in Eastern European real estate has continued with acquisitions for GE Real Estate and divestments for IVG.
GE expanded its Slovakian retail portfolio with the acquisition of three Max shopping centres in Trnava, Poprad and Trencin. It purchased the Trnava centre, completed in 2004, for €14.2m.
GE did not disclose how much it had paid for the other two properties. Nor would it identify the expected yield for the three properties. However, a spokeswoman for the firm said it would be looking at other retail opportunities in the region.
IVG Immobilien has denied that it is downgrading its investments in the Hungarian market
after it sold a package of five Budapest office properties to HGA Capital for €99.8m. The package, with a combined size of 38,000 metres2, comprises three modern office blocks and two listed buildings.
IVG said it had sold the properties to boost its figures amid declining yields. “We came to Budapest early, in 1998, and we’ve seen yields drop from 12-13% to 7%,” said spokesman Thomas Rücker. “It’s a good time to sell and earn some money.”
But he denied that IVG had lost interest in Hungary, pointing out that it was in the process of developing two other properties in the capital.
He said: “We’re always doing due diligence on opportunities as they come to the Hungarian market, as we do in the rest of Europe, but we have no immediate acquisition targets.”

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