This year, Mint Investments will continue focusing on creating above average returns with minimum risk for its investors in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Katarina Lindbergh, Partner of Mint Investments discussed this year’s plans for new residential projects in Prague and Bratislava with Property Forum.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, 2022 witnessed a recovery in commercial real estate investment activity in CEE, with the year closing marginally up compared to the previous year. Total investment volumes in Central and Eastern Europe came in at €10.7 billion, up by 6.6% year-on-year. With more than €5.7 billion worth of deals, Poland continued to lead the way across the region.

Brno-based developer Domoplan will start to build over 400 flats in a new residential area in Brno next year. The Brixx project will offer housing for around 1,000 people and will cost around €169 million, the developer announced, according to a report by ČTK.

VGP completed the construction of its largest site in Northern Bohemia. VGP Park Hrádek nad Nisou comprises five halls with a total lettable area of more than 122,000 sqm. All the halls were tailor-made for a single tenant – Drylock Technologies, a global manufacturer of baby diapers and hygiene products, VGP announced.

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.