Over the last years, the Czech capital on the Vltava river has strengthened its positioning as a city escape favourite among international leisure travellers. Specialist business property adviser Christie & Co’s analysis revealed that although competition on the hotel market is fierce, performance increased over the long run, despite last year’s mixed results.

Immofinanz is making a further strategic acquisition in the office sector with the purchase of the Palmovka Open Park in Prague through the takeover of the related real estate holding companies. This office location consists of three buildings with 25,800 sqm of rentable space. The agreed property value amounts to €76.4 million, and the expected rental income totals roughly €4.4 million per year. The seller is Metrostav Development, the project development company which completed the property in 2018. The seller was represented by Knight Frank.

Prague’s modern office stock located within a 10-minute walking distance from a metro station grew from 2.54 million sqm to 2.69 million sqm between Q4 2017 and Q1 2019, taking the amount of Prague offices located within this walking distance to 77% of the total stock, according to the third annual edition of the Prague Office Metro Map from Colliers International Czech Republic.

Mint Investments Group has completed the acquisition of the Main Point Pankrác office building for South Korean investment company Hana Financial Investment. The value of the transaction exceeds €115 million. Mint provided the investment underwriting and advisory during the transaction and will be responsible for the property's asset management. Dentons, Cushman & Wakefield, Arcadis and TPA also advised on the transaction.

28 out of the total of 80 brands that tapped the market in the Central and Eastern European region in 2018 chose the Czech Republic as their destination. As a result, the number of new brands coming to the country remained the same as in the previous year. Poland is a close second with 26 new international brands having opened their first shops there last year. The figures come from the latest comparison prepared by Cushman & Wakefield, which monitors and compares data in the real estate sector across the region. This enables the company to provide a full picture of the developments on the Central European market.

Radisson Blu announced the opening of a new Radisson Blu Hotel in Prague. The reopening of this modern hotel follows the transformation of an existing property, with major capital investment going into the project to upgrade and rebrand the former hotel.

Skanska has acquired about 13,000 square meters of land in Prague, Czech Republic, from HB Reavis Group B.V. The total investment amounts to €19.5 million.

During Q1 2019, some 168,300 sqm of warehouse space was completed on the Czech industrial market. In year on year comparison, this was a 20% decrease, but in longer term comparison, the completions level was 25% above 5-year average, according to Colliers International.

Flow East has announced that its new development, currently under construction on Wenceslas Square, will be named "The Flow Building". The mixed-use project will offer nearly 15,000 sqm of Class A office space and 6,000 sqm of high-quality retail space upon its completion in 2020.

The Czech property investment market continues to post solid figures in an environment that is increasingly less bullish. One of the leading local players believes that a downturn of the current property cycle will eventually come from a major outside macro shock and before this happens, the Czech commercial property sector will keep showing positive figures. Tomáš Jandík, CFA, MRICS, REICO’s Chief Investment Officer shared his market expectations with Property Forum.