The frozen Czech residential real estate market experienced a minor shake-up when developer Central Group put fifty new apartments on the market in Prague's Harfa at a big discount. According to the developer, they were sold out in a few hours. The price was CZK 100,000 (€4,250) per sqm, a quarter cheaper than is usual in the locality and a third cheaper than the Prague average, writes Hn.cz.

The latest data from Q1 2023 show a recovery of the new flats market in Prague. Quarter-on-quarter, sales increased by almost a fifth. The mortgage market, which has also seen a rally in recent months, but also the return of investors, will have an impact on further developments. Neither offer nor sale prices have changed significantly compared to the previous period. This is mainly due to persistently high construction costs, slow permitting of new construction and temporary postponement of some planned projects, according to the market analysis of development companies Trigema, Skanska and Central Group.

Despite the general slowdown of investment activity in Europe, properties in Poland remain attractive to both local and foreign investors. Avison Young Poland summarised the current situation in the Polish investment market.

Property investment group NEPI Rockcastle will open its new Promenada Craiova shopping centre this October, following an investment of more than €125 million. The project will include more than 150 stores and will create over 1,500 jobs in the city based in southern Romania. 

Ghelamco has become a member of the Partnership for Climate program initiated by the City of Warsaw.

The developer has launched construction work on Panattoni Park Tricity East III, which on completion will comprise 44,300 sqm, of which 33,600 sqm has already been leased.

Hungarian investment fund Adventum Group has achieved the Excellent rating in accordance with the BREEAM In-Use standard for green buildings certification for its Hermes Business Campus (HBC) office project based in Bucharest.

IWG, the owner of the Regus brand, has secured 1338 sqm of commercial space in the newest large residential complex in Hungary’s rapidly developing regional city, Szeged. Regus Cédrus Liget Offices will offer serviced spaces for smaller and startup companies.

Developer activity in the Prague office market in Q1 2023 was still below the pre-pandemic level. As a result, only about 145,000 sqm of office space is under construction and no new construction has even started in recent months, according to the latest report by the Prague Research Forum, whose members include CBRE, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, Knight Frank and Savills.

Bulgarian malt producer Malteries Soufflet, one of the world's three leading operators in the malt industry and a subsidiary of the European agricultural group InVivo, will invest €56 million in constructing a new malt plant near the city of Pleven.