Colliers International announced that Kevin Turpin has been appointed as the new Regional Director of Research for Central and Eastern Europe. He starts his new position on 1 October and will be based in Prague.

Nova Real Estate fund, managed by the fund management company Redside, has completed the acquisition of the home improvement supplies store  OBI in Frýdek Místek, from the seller, development company PTO. OBI is a German multinational retailing company founded in 1970. With more than 650 retail stores, OBI is the largest DIY retailer in Europe, and the third-largest in the world. This is the second property with OBI as a tenant in the Fund’s portfolio in the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic has one of the longest and most complicated building procedures in the world and is ranked 156 out of 190 countries observed by The World Bank. Fortunately for real estate developers, the situation is slowly changing. Erwin Hanslik MRICS, Partner and CEE Head of Real Estate at Taylor Wessing talked to us about the legal and regulatory challenges investors and developers need to face in the Czech Republic.

Českomoravská Nemovitosti has acquired the BLOX office building in Prague's Dejvice district for more than €77 million (CZK 2 billion). The building's primary tenant is Amazon.  The acquisition was financed by ČSOB.

BNP Paribas Real Estate has appointed Karel Bor as the new Managing Director in the Czech Republic. Karel Bor brings with him over 20 years of professional experience within the real estate industry including brokerage, advisory and property development.  

The office space market in Prague is currently doing very well and has a great potential for further development. Its excellent condition is illustrated by several parameters that Cushman & Wakefield has been monitoring on a long-term basis and whose correct interpretation in relation to the current results is presented here. These indicators are primarily the highly positive trend in the office demand (the occupied office space increased by 47,000 sqm), vacancy rate remaining at its record-breaking low (with just 4.6% of stock being vacant) and the highest number of newly opened buildings in the last five years (17 buildings including 11 newly built ones).

According to the latest RICS Commercial Property Monitor, CEE countries – most notably the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania – are still global leaders in occupier and investment sentiment. The Central European region’s most mature market, Austria is on a different path, however, with respondents reporting a broadly flat outlook.

KGAL has acquired the DRN office building in Prague for a pan-European special real estate Alternative Investment Fund (AIF). The purchase is in line with KGAL’s strategy of Europe-wide diversification across prime locations, and is its first investment in the Czech Republic. The fund now holds properties in Germany, Austria, Ireland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The hotel investment market is reaching new heights in the Czech Republic with year to date volumes at €530 million and 10 hotel transactions. This is more than a 100% growth compared to the average yearly transaction volume of €250 million, recorded over the past five years.

Metro Properties, the real estate company of METRO AG, sold 11 Cash & Carry stores in Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic in a sale-and-leaseback transaction. The portfolio has been acquired by FLE GmbH, Vienna, subsidiary of French LFPI Group, investing on behalf of an AIF regulated fund. The transaction was finalized in August 2019, with a total volume exceeding €250 million. Metro and Makro Cash & Carry will continue to operate all wholesale locations on the basis of long-term lease contracts.