ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG Czech Republic

On behalf of its clients, CBRE Global Investors has bought Prologis Park Ostrava from Prologis for an undisclosed sum. The 65,910 sqm complex, comprising two buildings, on the D1 motorway has now been renamed Ostrava Logistics Park. It is fully leased to five tenants.

Extensions to established shopping centres will be a significant driver of new floor space across Europe in the next two years, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest European Shopping Centre Development Report. 4.5 million sqm is expected to be delivered in 2017 and 2.3 million sqm in 2018. One-quarter of that will be attributable to the extensions of the existing shopping centres. In the Czech Republic extensions will make as much as 80%. 

Retail property investments continue to attract investors´ attention within the EMEA region as well as in the Czech Republic. Due to a lack of quality retail schemes available for purchase in the European core markets, investors´ interest has been broadening in terms of geographies as well as retail asset classes. The latest JLL study summarises the trends on the European retail market from an investors´ perspective. 

CBRE sees continuing strong demand from investors in the Czech Republic across the core sectors of office, retail and industrial with an increased demand for more specialist sectors such as hotels and residential. The retail sector in Q1 clearly dominated with more than €900 million transacted, followed by the office sector with a 20% share of total market volume.

Tenant representation is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon on the office markets of Central Europe, which is without a doubt a sign of a healthy, growing and more educated market. Their activity, however, often raises ethical questions as it’s still often unclear who pays for their services. Conflict of interest in tenant representation has been one of the key topics of two regional events: the Property Forum - RICS Prague Property Summit 2017 and the latest RICS Hungary Tea & Talk in Budapest.

Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed by CPI Property Group to continue as a property manager of two major shopping centers and one multifunctional complex in Central and Eastern Europe which have been recently acquired from CBRE Global Investors.

Helaba and pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, acting as co-arrangers, are providing a €177 million facility to developer and investor CTP for the refinancing of CTPark Bor, one of the Czech Republic's largest logistic parks. The loan is being financed in a club deal, with each partner providing 50% of the facility and Helaba acting as agent. The transaction closed in April 2017 and has a term of seven years. 

There is currently 343 000 sqm of office space in development in Prague, 144 000 sqm of which is slated for completion this year. This is the strongest development pipeline since 2014. That being said, the first quarter did not launch the major increase in new office stock expected in the wake of the historically weakest year of 2016. Completion of the majority of new space is planned for the second half of this year.

Central European industrial markets have a bright future ahead of them but regulatory issues and labour shortage can pose a threat to further growth in many countries. The speakers of the first ever Prague Property Summit analysed the potential of the market from a European perspective.

Net take-up on the Czech industrial market in Q1 2017 totalled 238,800 sqm, representing a yearly increase of 13%. The vacancy rate reached 4.7%, having decreased marginally by 4 bps since Q4 2016. The Industrial Research Forum announced the final Industrial Market figures for Q1 2017.