The impacts of COVID-19 are becoming visible on Prague’s office market with a rapid decrease of net demand and the postponement of several completions of new office projects. At the same time, the share of sublease deals within the total take-up increased from around 1% in previous quarters to 7%. The Prague Research Forum announced the office market figures for the third quarter of 2020.

Immofinanz has appointed Savills as sole property manager for its portfolio of seven office buildings in Prague, Czech Republic, with effect from January 2021. The total floor area of the assets is approximately 123,000 sqm.

JLL announced the appointment of Andrew Peirson as Managing Director of its Czech Republic business effective January 1st, 2021. Based in Prague, Peirson will lead the senior management team, supporting and growing the various business lines in leasing, sales, investments, consulting and strategic advisory. As part of the CEE leadership team, he will help navigate the evolving business environment in this prospering and rapidly growing region and continue delivering exceptional value to our clients.

Garbe Industrial Real Estate GmbH has acquired as part of its European expansion strategy into the CEE market, a first class development opportunity in Chomutov, The 65,000 sqm land plot is directly located on highway exit D7. Demolition of the current properties will begin by the end of this year and construction of the new, 32,000 sqm state of the art logistics real estate facilities is scheduled to begin in summer 2021. 

According to Savills’ latest research, Europe will see an additional 11.6 million sqm of warehouse demand due to the manufacturing sector by the end of 2022, based on Capital Economics forecasts data.

Local developer Sekyra Group has acquired the Stýblův dům townhouse on Wenceslas Square in Prague for around €16.6 million (CZK 450 million). The company is planning to invest €31.3 million (CZK 850 million) in restoring the building.

On 2 October 2020, CEE-based investor CPI Property Group submitted a binding offer to participate in a capital increase of Nova RE SIIQ S.p.A. The offer was approved by the board of Nova RE on 7 October 2020. CPIPG will subscribe for newly issued shares of Nova RE at a price of €2.36 per share, for a total consideration of about €26 million. Following the capital increase, CPIPG will own more than 50% of Nova RE and will launch a mandatory takeover offer for the remaining shares in Nova RE at €2.36 per share. The capital increase is subject to the approval of Nova RE’s financing bank (standard change of control provision) and will be funded with cash.

A group of companies that in April 2019 filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against CPI Property Group, its majority shareholder Radovan Vítek and other accused parties, are appealing against the dismissal of the case.

As of September, Omar Sattar, a real estate professional with more than 25 years of experience in the sector at companies like DTZ, Avestus Capital Partners, and Colliers International, has taken over the management of the real estate investment team of the Czech and Slovak investment platform Crowdberry. The company now provides private investors with a greater volume of specific investment opportunities in high-quality residential projects and commercial real estate.

Generali Real Estate’s Core+ Fund has acquired the IBC office building in Prague’s Karlín neighbourhood from local investor Mint Investments for €70.2 million (CZK 1.9 billion). Wilsons provided legal advice for the seller during the transaction.