JLL announced that Ben Rose has been appointed Head of Capital Markets for the Czech Republic. Ben takes over the role from Mike Atwell, who – after four years of heading up the Czech Republic and CEE capital markets team – returned to London to take up a senior position in the EMEA Industrial & Logistics investment team.

The office market is changing due to the coronavirus pandemic, albeit not as dramatically as initially expected. Offices as a concept are definitely not over and working from home is not becoming a lasting standard – it has been confirmed that it has its limitations and that personal contact is irreplaceable. A hybrid model, combining working in the office and at home, will likely be more common. Office space take-up is still below the pre-crisis figures, but the activity on the market has been growing recently. For the time being, the growth has not been enough to justify the growth in rental prices that would be necessary due to an increase in construction material prices, but both can be expected to grow in the future. The crisis has halted the progress of some schemes, so we will not see a major increase in new office stock before 2023. This could result in demand overhang, and thus in increased rents in the years to come, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The multimodal complex next to Brno Airport, jointly developed by Brno Airport, belonging to the Accolade Group, and developer Panattoni, is now fully leased. Tenants such as Coca Cola, DHL or Zásilkovna are now joined by major companies s Erba Lachema from the Erba Group, Noviko and Reda.

Autodoc, an online retailer for vehicle parts and accessories, has chosen Panattoni Park Cheb South, which is being built jointly by developer Panattoni for investment group Accolade, for its expansion into the Czech market. The 31,500 sqm automated distribution centre expand on a building which was the first project in the Czech Republic to be awarded an ‘Outstanding’ sustainability rating and a record score of 90.68% according to the BREEAM global sustainability certification.

According to the latest report by Savills, the record take-up levels and no speculative completions caused the vacancy rate on the Czech industrial space market to plummet 70 bps to a new low of 1.75%, one of the sharpest quarterly declines observed in the market in the last five years. The total volume of modern industrial space available for lease across the country fell from 226,700 sqm in June to 165,000 sqm in September.

CPI Property Group has announced an anticipatory mandatory takeover offer for all outstanding shares of Immofinanz AG. Shareholders are to be offered €21.20 in cash per Immofinanz share. Immofinanz said that it will review the offer in detail and will comment on it in due course in accordance with the Austrian Takeover Act.

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.