Inflation is putting pressure on developers to increase rents. Luckily, in some markets, such as the Czech logistics market, buoyant demand is helping drive rental growth. Jakub Kodr, Head of Business Development at CTP Czech Republic talked to Property Forum about the company’s expansion plans, dealing with inflation and changing demand dynamics.

European developer and owner of semi-industrial and logistics properties VGP has acquired a new tenant for its logistics park VGP Park Kladno in the Kladno East industrial zone. It is the Danish company Kvadrat, which focuses on interior design and is entering the domestic market, VGP announced.

The beginning of Q1 2022 has brought record numbers. €898 million was invested into Czech real estate assets in Q1 2022, demonstrating a 210% year-on-year increase. Without the c. €1.3 billion Residomo transaction which was closed in Q1 2020, this quarter's investment volume would be the highest since Q1 2019, Savills' latest research shows.

Work has been underway for more than ten years on a major planning document for Prague - the new zoning plan. Its elaboration has cost the capital city CZK 135 million so far, while the assessment and elaboration of changes cost CZK 181 million. According to the city's statistics, 367 amendments are submitted annually, a number that the new metropolitan plan should significantly reduce. The new plan is also expected to unlock up to 15 areas where there is currently a building closure. If the metropolitan plan is approved as proposed, it could begin to take effect as early as 2023 and could unlock the construction of up to 150,000 new flats. The public now has 66 days to comment on the plan, local daily E15.cz reports.

Hundreds of flats are to be built in Prague by RSBC Group. The company wants to implement a CZK 1 billion project in Prague's Vysočany district to convert an old vacuum cleaner factory into 243 apartments. RSBC is going into the project with developer Masák & Partner, online daily E15.cz reports.

Passerinvest Group a.s. has entered into an off-market agreement with the investor Simona Otavova for the purchase of the building housing the general headquarters of the state-funded organization Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic (Ředitelství silnic a dálnic ČR – ŘSD). The value of the transaction was not disclosed. The change of ownership was announced today by Passerinvest.

According to the land registry, Microsoft has acquired a large seven-hectare plot of land in Prague's Klíčov district from CPI Property Group. The price of the transaction is CZK 1.5 billion, according to the purchase contract filed with the land registry, reports Seznamzpravy.cz.

500 flats will be built on the site of a medical device factory. This is what the KKCG group is announcing after its move to a two-and-a-half-hectare brownfield site in Modřany, Prague. The new acquisition was reported by the daily E15.

The Prague Public Transport Company (DPP) has signed an agreement with investors from CPI Property Group and Karlín Group and together they will build the Nové Holešovice district in Prague 7. Information about the billion-dollar project was reported by the daily E15. 

The modern, developer-led warehouse stock in the Czech Republic has almost reached 10 million sqm and it may surpass 11 million within a year. A record amount of space was under construction as it has reached a 103% increase compared to Q1 2021. Gross take-up (including renegotiations) also grew in Q1 2022. This quarter also marks the end of the decline in the vacancy rate after almost two years. A total of 175,300 sqm of modern industrial premises is available for immediate occupation. The Industrial Research Forum has announced industrial market figures for Q1 2022.