According to Savills Investment Research, the commercial property market in the Czech Republic is expected to start strongly in 2025, with investment volumes projected to reach approximately €900 million in the first two months alone.
This figure represents about half of the total volume in 2024, which stood at €1.8 billion—considering that after the conclusion of these early-in-the-year transactions, 2025 will still have ten months remaining.
At Savills, they are therefore confident that the market has reached a turning point and that we will be witnessing a return to higher trading volumes in Czech commercial real estate. In 2024, investment volumes grew by 40% year-on-year, driven by notable transactions, giving a good indication of the pick-up in tempo and investor appetite.
Fraser Watson, Head of Investment at Savills, says: “There is a broad consensus that the European, and potentially global, real estate market will pick up in 2025. Interest rates are still expected to fall further, which will of course drive investor engagement. This is just one part of the puzzle though. Another couple of important things to consider are the amount of ‘dry powder’ waiting to be deployed and the FOMO, fear of missing out, the effect that is currently building.”
"In 2024, the retail sector led investment activity, capturing 35% of the total volume. Offices followed with 19%, while industrial properties contributed 14%. The residential sector also performed robustly, accounting for 12% of total investment, marking its highest volume in the last four years,” adds Vojtěch Wolf, Senior Investment Analyst at Savills.
In terms of sector preferences for 2025, on a more macro level the ‘beds ‘n’ sheds’ (residential and industrial) trend persists with investors. However, in the Czech market, the residential segment plays a smaller role for institutional investors due to the limited availability of opportunities. This to some degree is also true for the industrial sector, where transaction volumes are historically comparatively low. Savills anticipates an increase in office stock entering the market this year, as well as the continued churn of smaller volume retail parks and some select shopping centres being traded.
“We observe that the retail sector is rising in popularity. Shopping centres have come back in the post-COVID years strongly in terms of performance and have shown that they continue to be relevant to consumers and can generate sustainable levels of income for investors. We are seeing that shopping centres coming to market are trading and can attract multiple bids from potential buyers, showing that there is a depth of market,“ concludes Fraser Watson.
