Prologis announced the launch of construction of Prologis Park Brno, a new logistics park in the Czech Republic, with the first speculative development of 27,860 square metres. The building is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2018.

Immofinanz has sold the Brno Business Park office buildings via a share deal to Infond investment fund. The transaction was closed on March 9, 2018. bpv Braun Partners advised Immofinanz on the sale. Infond has been advised by Hladky Legal, Knight Frank and Redbaenk.

Czech start-up Opifer, which has so far invested in biotechnology and IT start-ups, has acquired the Futurum shopping centre in Brno from Atrium European Real Estate, e15.cz reports.

Cushman & Wakefield is further expanding its presence in the Czech Republic. It will open a new regional office in the Trinity Office Center in the centre of Brno. Its focus will be on regional office market, but will offer to its clients consulting services from other real estate sectors as well. Lukáš Netolický will be leading the office and at the same time becomes the Head of Regional Cities CZ. The new office will open in March 2018. Cushman & Wakefield is therefore responding to the steadily growing trend of regional market development fuelled by the economic growth. Brno is the most active city in terms of demand, followed by Ostrava.

A new concept of modern living for students and young professionals in Brno has opened its doors. DOMEQ offers 159 rooms and apartments for 309 residents. It is located in Ponávka Business Park and a part of the residency will be allocated specifically to students and interns from the local firms in the area. On behalf of CTP, the building will be run by the agency Foreigners.cz.

Free office space is dwindling in the Czech Republic. The office vacancy rate in Brno, as well as in Prague, has slipped below 10%. Both cities experience the lowest rate of vacant offices in the last decade. Brno recorded a sharp decline by 2.4 percentage points in H1 2017, while in the capital demand totalled 153,500 sqm in Q2 2017, up 45% on the previous quarter and 36.9% year-on-year. Overall, more than 370 deals were closed in Prague in H1 2017, many of which were pre-leases. In contrast, in Brno there was an 8% drop in lettings compared to H2 2016.

Tesco’s department store next to Brno’s main railway station has been sold to British developer Crestyl for an undisclosed sum. The supermarket will continue to operate at its current location. 

Gross take-up in the first half of the year decreased on yearly basis in the two largest regional cities in the Czech Republic. The Regional Research Forum – comprising CBRE, Colliers International, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, Knight Frank – published its Brno and Ostrava office market figures for H1 2017.

Pan-European fund manager Aerium has sold a shopping centre in Brno to CPI Property Group, for an undisclosed sum. Built in 2004, Kralovo Pole Shopping Centre comprises of a two-level gallery with 78 shops and a food court, providing a total of 26,500 sqm GLA plus 900 parking spaces. It is anchored by a Tesco hypermarket.

CBRE sees continuing strong demand from investors in the Czech Republic across the core sectors of office, retail and industrial with an increased demand for more specialist sectors such as hotels and residential. The retail sector in Q1 clearly dominated with more than €900 million transacted, followed by the office sector with a 20% share of total market volume.