South Korean real estate investment trust JR AMC has marked its entry into the Hungarian office market with the acquisition of a €41m asset.

Developer Skanska said it has sold its Nordic Light Trio office building in Budapest to the Asian investor.

The seven-story building, expected to be delivered in the second quarter of next year, comprises a total leasable area of 14,000sqm and 221 parking spaces. 98% of space within the building is already leased.

The acquisition is the first office investment in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) for JR AMC following the company’s transactions in Vienna, Paris and Dublin.

Adrian Karczewicz, head of divestments at Skanska commercial development business unit in the CEE, said: “This is further proof that Asian investors have a positive sentiment towards Europe and actively search for new investment opportunities on our continent.

“On the one hand, they find CEE countries attractive thanks to the political and economic stability that they offer, which is additionally guaranteed by being part of the EU. And on the other, prospects for the region are also promising with return on investment being higher than in Western Europe.”

Hyon Suk Jang, executive managing director of foreign investment at JR AMC, said: “With yields in Western Europe breaking historic records, our interest is to constantly explore new markets whereby we can achieve high yields, simultaneously minimizing any trade-off in building quality or macro risk profile.

“In such sense, we strongly believe the CEE market is in favour of any other market.”