Due to the high prices of flats and houses, less availability of mortgages, extreme inflation, as well as the rising price of building materials and labour, people in the Czech Republic are now looking more for rental housing. The influx of refugees from Ukraine has also significantly increased the interest in renting. Under the influence of the enormous demand, rental prices are thus starting to reach the pre-Covida level, and in some places have already exceeded it. According to PSN, the availability of apartments is decreasing and the company is now preparing entire projects for rental housing.

House prices in Hungary have reached a new record in 2021. In Q4 2021, the biggest jump occurred in secondary cities compared to the last quarter of 2020 (25% year-on-year) followed by Budapest (11% year-on-year), the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) reports.

Romanian IMPACT Developer & Contractor has recorded a gross profit of 16.7 million lei (€3.3 million) in the first quarter of 2022, up 49% compared to the same period of last year over higher residential sales. 

Property developer Prime Kapital has received the building permit for Pleiades Residence in Ploiești and will start construction by the end of spring.  

Romanian developer One United Properties said its first quarter turnover gained 81% to €70.5 million compared to Q1 2021, while its gross profit rose almost fourfold to €42 million over higher residential sales and rental income. 

Prague 3 has spoken out against a development project planned by the developer UDI Group in Žižkov. The town hall is bothered by the size of the project. The developer accuses the authority of arbitrariness and threatens to sue. Martin Roman, an ex-CEZ Group boss, has a stake in the project, writes seznamzpravy.cz.

Investment group DRFG has acquired land near the main railway station in Olomouc (the eastern province of Moravia in the Czech Republic) in March this year and plans to build flats and commercial premises there. It plans to build a multifunctional residential complex with retail space and offices on this brownfield site with a total market value of CZK 2.6 billion and an area of 43,000 sqm by 2025. The architectural design of the complex is currently being finalised. DRFG Group informed about its new acquisition and construction plans in a press release today.

Property developer Hagag Development Europe will invest over €20 million in H Primăverii 1, a new residential project comprising 18 apartments and 700 sqm of commercial spaces.

The fifth stage of the Bory Housing residential project is being prepared in the newly emerging Bory district in the northwest of Bratislava. This week the documentation for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was submitted. At the same time, documents for obtaining a zoning decision are being prepared. The fifth stage will bring 366 apartments to the site with construction expected to start in the first half of 2024, the developer announced this week.

The average price of an older apartment in the Czech Republic exceeded CZK 90,000 per sqm for the first time in Q1 2022, according to a study by the real estate group European Housing Services (EHS). In Prague, an older apartment costs more than 120,000 per sqm and in Brno, it is over 90,000. Rents have returned to prices before the coronavirus crisis, the Czech News Agency quotes the EHS report.