ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG Czech Republic

Focus Estate Fund has finalized the deal on the sale of two of its retail properties in the Czech Republic to investment group DRFG – Centro Ostrava Retail Park (7 699 sqm GLA) in Ostrava and Most Retail Park (6 471 sqm GLA) in Most. The Fund acquired these assets in 2016 and 2017, respectively. As of the date of the transaction, both properties were 100% leased.

CTP officially opened two more buildings in Brno for young local and expatriate professionals and young families. Both buildings can accommodate more than 200 individuals and are follow-ups to the successfully established Domeq I, which the company launched in Brno about four years ago. Due to their larger rooms, the two new buildings are designed to be more for individual residential living rather than co-living, as was the case for Domeq I.  CTP continued this residential project in response to the current high demand in the housing market that is not just seen in Brno, but the whole country.

The total volume of real estate investments in the Czech Republic reached €328 million in the third quarter of 2021, being 24% below the previous quarter but 8% up year-on-year, according to Savills latest report.

Investment market experts in the Czech Republic are concerned about the potential effects of high inflation and rising interest rates on the market. At the same time, they remain highly optimistic about the future of logistics and keep ESG at the top of their agenda, according to a recent panel discussion at Prague Property Forum 2021, moderated by Jaroslav Kaizr MRICS, Expert Director of the MBARE programme at VŠE.

CTP has expanded its cooperation with the logistics company Loxxess s.r.o., which is currently the second-largest tenant of CTP in the Czech Republic. The newly constructed warehouse provides the company with nearly 70,000 sqm of additional space, over and above their existing 45,000 sqm of leased space, was handed over in September. The premises are mainly used for the storage of drugstore goods for dm-drogerie markt.

Panattoni has revitalised another brownfield site for investment group Accolade. They have returned industry to a location where it has historically thrived, the former Kavalier glassworks site in Hostomice, in the Teplice region. The first tenant of the new industrial zone named Panattoni Park Teplice South is the Czech sanitary equipment retailer Sanitino. It has started operating a distribution centre, which will gradually serve the whole of Europe. The transformation of a brownfield, with more than a century of glass history, into a modern zone for light manufacturing and distribution of goods, with an investment of more than half a billion, is therefore continuing successfully.

The rising prices of construction materials and energy, the increasing cost of land for new construction, a lack of crucial components to ensure continuous production and workforce shortages are all afflicting the industrial sector in the Czech Republic. One solution in regard to the availability of industrial real estate would seem to be the optimising of operations and more frequent investment by many companies into the automation of routine activities.

Passerinvest Group has begun the construction of the new Roztyly Plaza office building. The building, with a total area of 23,000 sqm from the workshop of the architect studio Aulík Fišer architekti, is going up right by the Roztyly metro station (C line) in Prague 11. Apart from the office function, the project also offers a public P+R parking lot and several retail units, which will significantly expand the local civic amenities.

Occupancy rates in Prague’s hotels were 50% higher during the summer holidays this year in comparison with last July and August, propelling Prague upwards in the European cities’ chart. Room rates exceeded €64 in the summer, also an improvement over last year. Many hotels worked with an operating profit and the growing number of reservations is also a positive sign. Autumn traditionally brings a drop in tourism and thus in performance – September occupancy rates are still comparable with summer rates and prices are even higher, but there are concerns about another wave of the pandemic and the potential operating restrictions. However, the improved performance in the summer has confirmed again that Prague’s hospitality market has been consistently sought after and popular, and its performance is hindered mostly by external and temporary factors.

With the recent completion of the third phase of the Tchibo distribution centre in Panattoni Park Cheb, adding approximately 30,000 sqm, the hall, totalling over 100,000 sqm, has become the largest industrial building completed this year in the Czech Republic. Panattoni as a developer completed the project together with investment group Accolade. Since the first phase of construction in 2016, the tenant has been Tchibo, one of the world's most important coffee producers and consumer goods retailers. The new part of the site aspires to a high BREEAM New Construction environmental certification rating of "Excellent".