Marek Blaha, Head of affordable housing developer Dostupné bydlení České spořitelny, talked to Property Forum about the necessity of expanding the overall availability of housing in the Czech Republic. According to him, one of the strategies to solve such a problem could lie in augmenting the proportion of rental housing and this could be supported by the cooperation of banks, municipalities and developers.

One of the first private-sector affordable housing projects in the Czech Republic, Opatov II with 300 flats in Prague 11 by developer Sekyra Group, has reportedly been sold. The transaction has not yet been announced by the buying parties, but credible sources have confirmed it. The transaction was also confirmed by an advisor to the selling party. According to the information available, part of the flats are to be acquired by the insurance company Kooperativa from the Vienna Insurance Group and part should be bought by Dostupné bydlení České spořitelny (subsidiary of Česká spořitelna bank) as the company's second housing project in Prague. The transaction amount has also not yet been disclosed.

The Czech government has approved the provision of CZK 800 million (€34.27 million) to a programme to support the construction of rental housing. Most of the money will be allocated to municipalities, but private investors who build apartments in cooperation with the municipality can also receive a part of it. Deputy Prime Minister and Regional Development Minister Ivan Bartoš (Pirates) told to čtk.

High inflation brings something that has not been seen in Czechia for a long time - a halt in the growth of residential property prices, especially flats. Prices of older flats are even falling. Frozen demand will soon hit construction companies. The housing market has slowed down considerably, and players are waiting for further economic development, says David Frič from STEM/MARK (the Euroconstruct member institute in Czechia).

Over the next 10 years, development group Creditas Real Estate plans to invest €1.151 billion in residential construction in the Czech Republic. It wants to build up to 5,500 apartments, of which 1,000 should be for rental housing. The company's CEO Jiří Vajner informed journalists about this.

Continuously rising housing prices across Croatia, additionally amplified by the country’s recent entry into Eurozone and the Schengen area, have provoked discussions about affordable housing and models that can be applied in Croatia, based on the experience of other countries in the CEE region. Erste Group Bank, one of the leading financial institutions in CEE, became a potential forerunner in setting up an affordable housing concept in Croatia, however, the project is yet to commence and still strongly depends on cooperation with local governments, which are often lacking flexibility or avoiding a tighter and highly publicized joint ventures with the private sector.

The UDI Group has acquired an industrial site in Brno in January, which it will operate for the time being while preparing for future redevelopment. At the moment, the plan is to build offices and hotel-type accommodations. If the city changes the zoning plan, as it seeks to do, the developer's final project may change to reflect this.  Construction would be done in phases, with the first phase to begin within two years. The developer announced the acquisition without disclosing the transaction price.

Prime residential developments will start in this 13-hectare territory in Pilisborosjenő, 7 km northwest of the capital. OC Investment Solutions assisted with the deal, portfolio.hu reports.

The last month of 2022 brought a 0.7% decrease in rents compared to the previous month with prices in Budapest sinking by 0.9%, ingatlan.com reports.

The fears of a recession are likely to cool down the red-hot real estate market in CEE countries, Erste specialists expect. According to them, this will be influenced mainly by surging inflation, the cost of credit and cooling down of the borrowing, and shrinking of the disposable household income which will also worsen the borrowing appetite in the coming periods. There is a change in the respondent’s behaviour too. Whereas respondents from Poland, Hungary and Croatia are open to buying or building a house, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians are less inclined to do so, say Erste experts in their recent special report.