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.

Czech bank Česká spořitelna is initiating the construction of more affordable rental housing in Czech towns with a population of over 10,000. The bank plans to launch the first trio of projects with 250 flats in cooperation with three town halls this year or in early 2023. Rental housing in such projects should be at least one-fifth cheaper, E15 reported on the bank's new plans today.  

The number of completed flats in Slovakia has fallen year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022.  Construction around Bratislava has also been on a downward trend for several quarters. However, three Slovak regions report the opposite trend with a dynamic increase in the number of completed apartments. The recovery can be observed in the number of flats under construction, according to data from the Statistical Office of Slovakia, reality.trend.sk reports.

Actual sales prices of real estate in the Slovak Republic reached high growth at the beginning of the year, mainly due to rising sales prices of new houses and flats, the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic announced.