ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG Czech Republic

The Czech retail market once again proved its appeal to retail brands, with 38 new arrivals last year. That is the same figure as in 2021 when the influx of 38 new brands was partly the result of the postponement of some entries due to the pandemic. These numbers represent a roughly 50% increase compared to 2019 (22 brands) and 2020 (25 brands), according to the Cushman & Wakefield analysis of the Czech retail market in 2022.

AFI Europe has completed its third rental housing project in Prague this year. AFIHome Kolbenova, the first apartment building in the new multifunctional district AFI City in Prague 9, has now been approved.

Some developers forecast that sales prices will increase in the future purely as a result of the zero-emission requirements currently being placed on buildings but there is no consensus as to what the ultimate effect will be. Robert David, Partner and Tomáš Kren, Senior Associate at Wolf Theiss’ Prague office talked to Property Forum about the increasingly important role ESG compliance plays in real estate transactions and potential regulatory changes that can affect the market.

The Managing Director of JLL Czech Republic expects a fairly quiet year in 2023 in the investment market. But in the industrial market, next year should be a strong one due to continued steady demand, says Andrew Peirson in an interview with Property Forum.

UDI Group, an international development group with Czech roots, is planning a massive construction in Belgrade, Serbia. It plans to build the Duga project with 2,320 apartments and 40,000 sqm of offices on the site of a former factory for almost €392 million. Construction is expected to start next year, UDI Group reported.

Portiva Group, with a portfolio of wind and solar parks with a total capacity of 30 megawatts, is set to build more solar farms in the Czech Republic. Although its focus in recent years has been on real estate and IT, the company now sees the time as opportune for investment in photovoltaic parks. It plans to build at least three, reports Hn.cz.

Following the previous financing of four phases of the Dock In Office Park in Prague, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (pbb) and Helaba have jointly underwritten an investment facility, totalling €63 million to refinance “Dock In Five”, the last addition to the Dock project developed by Crestyl Group. pbb and Helaba acted as joint lead arrangers and provided equal portions of the funding; pbb also acts as the facility and security agent for the transaction.

Czech real estate fund Investika has decided to take another step in diversifying its real estate portfolio. Its latest acquisitions are luxury properties in Croatia for short-term rentals.

Logport Development and Invesco Real Estate have teamed up and, via a forward funding structure, committed to developing a 37,900 sqm Grade A last-mile logistics facility, Logport Prague West, strategically located adjacent to the Prague ring road. The transaction was mediated by Cushman & Wakefield. Logport Prague West, where construction started in September 2022, has already attracted the first tenants to move in during the summer of 2023. The entire commercial zone is scheduled for completion in Q1 2024.

How will the current macroeconomic situation affect investment activity and further development within individual sectors, from offices to industrial and logistics complexes to retail real estate? All this is shown in CBRE's latest analysis of the Czech commercial real estate market, which also provides an updated outlook for 2023.