Samla Market Pulse

Transactions and investors

The discussion in the transaction market shifted from individual deals to investors' broader strategies. Swedish property investor Roger Akelius is calling on Swedish property company Castellum to exit the Finnish and Danish markets and to sell its entire stake in Norwegian property company Entra. Construction company Skanska sold the second phase of the H2Offices office complex in Budapest for EUR 98 million to ERSTE's real estate fund. Akelius's demand also concerns the Finnish market directly.

Organisations and key people

Swedish property companies are reshaping their organisations and bringing new expertise into key roles. Castellum is simplifying its structure from four regions to two, to be led by Örjan Rystedt and Per Gawelin. At the same time, the company aims to cut administrative costs by 15 percent, or about SEK 100 million. Logistics property company Logicenters is strengthening its commercial team in Sweden with Rikard Skoglund, who brings more than 20 years of experience in the sector. Petra Scharin of property services firm Newsec is leaving the company after nearly 15 years. Most recently she shared the CEO role with Max Barclay, who now continues as the company's sole CEO.

Capital and financing

Financing conditions for property companies have improved in 2026 as competition between banks and capital markets has pushed down margins. Long-term interest rates have nevertheless risen, particularly in the US. Sweden's Riksbank has held its policy rate at 1.75 percent this year, but expectations of near-term rate hikes have increased. In Finland, SB-Hem, a real estate agency chain belonging to the Savings Banks Group, lowered its forecast. It expects prices of existing apartments to fall by 2.5–3 percent this year and the number of brokered transactions by 10–12 percent, although it already sees signs of growing interest. The 3-month Euribor stands at 2.61 percent and the 12-month Euribor at 3.38 percent, and the average rate on new mortgages rose to 3.35 percent in August.

Construction and projects

In construction, data centres and care properties came to the fore. YIT is continuing interior finishing and building services work on XTX Markets' third data centre in Kajaani. In the same week, the company doubled its group revenue growth target for the strategy period, citing Finland's growing data centre market. Property investment company Ovaro is developing a 56-bed care home in Joensuu as part of a 150-apartment block under construction. NCC is building a care home in Turku for Hemsö, worth about SEK 200 million. In Finland, building permits were granted for 709 dwellings in July, compared with 813 a year earlier, and 40 construction bankruptcy filings were made in August.

Sources: Nordic Property News, YIT stock exchange releases, Ovaro stock exchange release.