Real Estate

As we covered in previous Insights Briefings, the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region offers much opportunity for the right capital partners. This piece in our series covers the current state and future prospects of the hospitality sector in the region, along with macroeconomic factors, strategic expansions in the market, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations.

Within the CEE market, the hospitality sector has been battered by the twin threats of increased financial costs, and geopolitical risk. From the onset, it should be said that in 2024, one would be hard pressed to find anywhere on earth that is not experiencing the same two concerns. Within the region, transactions dropped by 18% in 2023 compared to 2022 partially due to the rising cost of debt which impacted projects from Warsaw (+0.25%) through Sofia (+0.75%). Ultimately, some projects became unfeasible from the onset.

As for the good news, there’s a few to cover. One is the meteoric rise of foreign interest in the market. At 197% growth year over year, the staggering rise in foreign investment into the region demonstrates the appetite for good quality projects in the CEE, lack of local funding solutions, and strong market fundamentals.

Along with...

On October 15 2023, Poland went to the polls. The result: the incumbent Law and Justice (PIS) party would be ousted by a new coalition headed by Donald Tusk, a former President of the European Council.

This electoral victory, despite a rocky handover, has led to renewed excitement about Poland and its economic prospects. With the new Prime Minister looking to re-engage with the rest of the European Union (EU), there has been a growing sense of optimism that Poland could return to working with the block as opposed to working against it from within. Following a series of expected reforms, such as restoring the independence of the courts, the EU would then look to unlock €60 billion of previously frozen funds for the country.

However, even without this recent electoral win, there are many reasons to be bullish about the Polish economy.

Poland has a strong track record for growth. Its economy is expected to continue to grow. Its population is younger than the EU average. And now there is a government in place waiting to take advantage of these factors.

In the rest of this briefing, we explore exactly why we are excited about three developments in the...