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The 19th International Trade Fair for Property and Investment – held on 4-6 October in Munich – welcomed the long-awaited Budapest stand, a joint initiative among the Municipality of Budapest, HIPA (Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency) and the Hungarian Property Developers’ Roundtable Association. Horizon Development, a founding member of the latter, showcased its prime development projects at the fair. Managing Partner Attila Kovács MRICS shares his impressions and conclusions: “We have been visiting EXPO REAL in previous years, but this is the first time that we are displaying our portfolio as a co-exhibitor in Munich. As part of a prior collaboration with the same exhibiting partners at MIPIM in Cannes, we already presented our Váci 1 (www.vaci1.hu), Promenade Gardens (www.promenadegardens.hu) and Szervita Square (www.szervita.com) projects to the international real estate audience in Spring 2016. After laying the foundations of our international presence there, we had high hopes that EXPO REAL would also generate the same quality feedback and substantial professional interest from the global property industry. We introduced the key features of our sustainable, multifunctional prime buildings (office, high-end retail, luxury residential) as part of an expert roundtable discussion, as well as a project presentation on the Budapest stand. After the 3-day event, we can certainly draw the conclusion that the results not only met, but clearly exceeded our expectations. We experienced significant investor interest in our projects, and received development management inquiries of various types and scales, from various sectors.

Recent changes and trends we experience on the Hungarian commercial property market definitely give reason to be optimistic about our future as developers. After a relatively long period of dormant projects and low-intensity development activity, commercial developers are now breaking ground in Budapest for new buildings one after the other. We are celebrating the stone laying of our large-scale office development project, Promenade Gardens next week, but the Szervita Square project is also bound to kick-off by Q4 2016.

With increased demand for offices and high-end retail units, and scarce availability of larger contiguous units, we as developers have a great responsibility to provide ample quality space for tenants seeking new premises with move-in dates in 2018 and 2019. Ever since its establishment ten years ago, our company has focused on the premium segment both in terms of developing projects in the most sought-after downtown Budapest locations, incorporating the most innovative solutions and complex services into its buildings, and involving clients and business partners in the process, thus creating long-term, trust-based relationships. When divesting our mixed-use buildings, the yields we managed to reach were always more attractive than the Budapest market average. Specializing both in heritage protection and modern architecture, and quickly responding to refined and unique demands formulated by market leading companies, the ambitious and visionary leadership of Horizon Development definitely fills a niche on the Hungarian development market.”