Alex Tomášková, CEO of JRD Land and JRD Development expects to see a gradual revival of demand for residential real estate at the turn of this year and next year. She believes that the energy crisis helps clients to be aware of the quality and energy efficiency of the company’s projects. Highlighting the positive in a negative situation, she talked to Property Forum about the Group’s development plans and ESG strategy.

The Czech industrial market grew at a rapid speed in 2022. Almost 1.1 million sqm of new space was added to the market, which is over 155% of the 5-year average annually completed space and the highest recorded figure on record for the Czech market. The market overtook 10 million sqm in mid-year and just failed to overtake the 11 million sqm milestone at year-end, achieving 10.8 million sqm at the end of Q4 2022. There was 150,300 sqm of newly added modern industrial space in the last quarter, Colliers says in their latest report.

The effects of higher interest rates have yet to cause too much distress within the likes of the Prague market, says Richard Britten-Long, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Českomoravská Nemovitostní, in an interview for Property Forum. He also talked about key market drivers, including ESG.

The Kaufland Marketplace will go live in Slovakia on February 15. Under the domain Kaufland.sk, online sellers will then have another sales channel than Germany available to them. The Kaufland Marketplace will also be launched in the Czech Republic in a few months. The marketplaces will be managed via the all-in-one solution Kaufland Global Marketplace, the company announced.

Cushman & Wakefield has taken over the management of a portfolio of three shopping centres and one retail park in the Czech Republic. Hungarian investment group Adventum Group bought this portfolio from Tesco last year in a unique transaction involving 18 retail projects across the CEE region. Cushman & Wakefield assisted its long-standing client Tesco in the sale and is now managing and exclusively leasing 50,000 sqm of retail in the Czech Republic space for Adventum.

The energy group Premier Energy has bought new projects in Romania with a capacity of approximately 41 megawatts, for which it paid €13 million. After completing all acquisitions and planned developments there, it will own or manage 700 megawatts of renewable energy, Pavel Zuna, a spokesman for Emma Capital, Premier Energy's parent company, told E15.

VGP has acquired a new tenant for its newly prepared technology park in Ústí nad Labem, situated in the northern part of the Czech Republic at a 90-kilometre distance from Prague. The new tenant in Hall A at VGP Park Ústí nad Labem City is Bosal, a company from the automotive industry.

The second half of 2022 has brought 33,000 sqm of office space to the Brno office stock up to the final of 664,400 sqm. There were five new office buildings that were completed and six more are under construction now. At this moment, Ostrava has only one project under construction with the completion scheduled for 2023, says the Regional Research Forum in its latest report on H2 2022.

The UDI Group has acquired an industrial site in Brno in January, which it will operate for the time being while preparing for future redevelopment. At the moment, the plan is to build offices and hotel-type accommodations. If the city changes the zoning plan, as it seeks to do, the developer's final project may change to reflect this.  Construction would be done in phases, with the first phase to begin within two years. The developer announced the acquisition without disclosing the transaction price.

Victoria's Secret's first "real" Czech store - so far an outlet has only operated at Prague's airport - is to open in Prague’s Westfield Chodov shopping centre in May this year, Cushman & Wakefield announced.