ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG Prague

The Prague City Council has approved the intention to launch a tender for a contractor to be entrusted with the transformation of the unfinished torso of the Prague 8 City Hall building. The Nová Palmovka Centre will become the new European Space Research Centre (EUSPA). The city is preparing this project for the Ministries of Transport and Finance, with which it is cooperating intensively.

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 Prague City Council has approved the investment preparation of the Beranka residential project in Prague Horní Počernice. The construction of 300 flats on an area of 63,000 sqm is being prepared under the management of the Prague Development Company (PDS). Architectural competition and tenders are being prepared. PDS plans to build between 2025 and 2030.

REICO ČS Nemovitostní (RČSN) continues to clean up its real estate portfolio. It has recently sold the Rohan Business Centre building in Prague's Karlín district. The buyer is the newly established Fio real estate fund from the Fio investment company. The transaction price was CZK 740 million (€31.2 million).

Q1 2023 saw a recovery in the Prague office space market. Growing demand may be met with lower availability of new premium space in the coming years, as only a smaller number of new projects are currently under construction. This may affect the currently stabilized price level of rents. Serviced office centres and ESG-compliant projects are on the rise. These findings come from a quarterly market survey conducted by Colliers.

The period of stagnation and waiting on the Prague residential market is over. Along with the spring came a revival in the Prague housing market. The demand is rising, and interest in buying and renting is also growing, according to the latest Knight Frank report.

The uncertainty that prevailed in the Czech commercial real estate market in the second half of 2022 has been reflected in Q1 2023. Although the market is already calmer, according to Colliers' experts, it is still awaiting a relatively long period of stabilization.

Penta Real Estate is finishing the construction of the new Motel One hotel in the centre of Prague near Masaryk railway station. According to the development company, the total investment in the hotel, which will be part of the Cloud One Line chain, came to CZK 1.2 billion (€51.2 million) over six years of preparation and construction. The hotel is scheduled to open in the spring of 2024.

A fund of the Generali insurance holding has sold a set of properties in the centre of Prague. The new owners of the individual houses are two companies, a manufacturer of sanitary equipment and a developer. All parties refused to comment on the transactions in detail, writes the online daily Seznamzpravy.cz.

The Prague office market has experienced a decline in the construction of new office buildings over the last three quarters which has also been reflected in a decline in speculative construction. Whereas a year ago almost 80% of offices under construction did not have a secure tenant, this share has now fallen to 52%. Tenants were looking for office space in established office locations in the vicinity of Karlín in Prague 8 and Pankrác in Prague 4 in the first quarter. A quarterly analysis by international consultancy JLL shows that 7.5% of modern office space in Prague is currently vacant, which corresponds to 289,100 sqm of space. However, the supply of so-called subleases, which are not included in the official vacancy register, is also growing. According to JLL's latest analysis, there could be around 80,000 sqm of sublease space.