REICO, Česká spořitelna’s real estate fund manager, expanded its Polish portfolio by the acquisition of the Galeria Sloneczna shopping centre in Radom. The value of the fund’s new acquisition is approximately €164 million (CZK 4.3 billion). The seller is an American insurance group that developed the asset in a joint venture partnership with AIG/Lincoln (now White Star Real Estate).

Cushman & Wakefield have newly become the manager of two Class A office buildings: Keystone in Prague 8 and Smíchov Gate in Prague 5. Both properties are situated in locations popular on the office market where lease volumes have been the highest this year. Prague 5 accounted for 16% of the total volume and Prague 8 for 15%.

Skanska invests €27 million in the office project Praga Studios in Prague. The seven-floor building will offer a total leasable area of about 12,000 square meters. Construction has begun and the office building is scheduled for completion in Q2 2019.

Free office space is dwindling in the Czech Republic. The office vacancy rate in Brno, as well as in Prague, has slipped below 10%. Both cities experience the lowest rate of vacant offices in the last decade. Brno recorded a sharp decline by 2.4 percentage points in H1 2017, while in the capital demand totalled 153,500 sqm in Q2 2017, up 45% on the previous quarter and 36.9% year-on-year. Overall, more than 370 deals were closed in Prague in H1 2017, many of which were pre-leases. In contrast, in Brno there was an 8% drop in lettings compared to H2 2016.

After completion of the second part of the construction in Panattoni Park Cheb, Tchibo has opened an expanded distribution centre for its e-shop. The rentable space increased from 39,000 sqm to 73,000 sqm. This means that in Cheb has grown the second largest logistics hall in the Czech Republic and Tchibo’s largest distribution centre in Central and Eastern Europe. Operations of the first part of the building were commenced on 2 December last year and the site these days just dispatched its millionth parcel.

Skanska has acquired the Key office project in Prague’s Pankrác district from ČSAD Praha Holding for an undisclosed sum. The developer plans to start construction works before year-end.

Július Hájek joins CTP as a new Head of Marketing. Július will be responsible for marketing strategy and execution as well as PR activities in all CTP markets throughout central Europe.

Occupier and investment sentiment remains positive across all Central and Eastern European countries tracked by the RICS Commercial Property Monitor. Results for Q2 2017 show that Hungary and the Czech Republic continue to post the strongest overall results. The vast majority of respondents expect new investors to enter the market with the presence of local and CEE investors predicted to increase across the region in the year ahead.

Investment volumes in Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Russia and Turkey) reached €7 billion in H1 2017. This is 6% less than in the same period of the previous year.

CTP has agreed to sell its non-core assets to DMO Invest for approximately €40 million. The sale involved CTP’s subsidiary CT Retail—a holding company for a portfolio of supermarkets and other retail properties.