The fourth quarter of 2017 was very strong for the office market in Prague. Demand significantly increased and annual gross demand reached a new record. Five new office buildings were completed and the vacancy rate decreased to 7.5 %, while prime headline rents grew, JLL reports.

M7 Real Estate has completed the sale of Oregon House in Prague on behalf of M7 Central European Real Estate Fund I (M7 CEREF I) to BHS German Real Estate Fund.

Prologis has begun construction of a new 28,300 square metre speculative facility at Prologis Park Prague-Uzice in the Czech Republic. It will be the third building at fully occupied park and is scheduled to be completed by mid-2018.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided an investment facility of €41.4 million to companies owned by a professional private real estate investor and managed by development and investment company Amesbury s.r.o. The funds will be used to refinance the Zlicin and Chrastany business parks near Prague. Thereby pbb extended the maturity of its financing by another five years. The transaction closed in December 2017.

Czech online retailer alza.cz has opened a new self-service concept store at Prague’s Flora metro station. The retailer has branded the new concept ‘the store of the future’. The store, which is able to serve 1,000 costumers daily, operates with no staff and offers 24-hour accessibility.

YIT has sold housing projects in Prague, the Czech Republic and in Bratislava, Slovakia to YCE Housing I fund. The value of the projects is approximately €50 million, and the sales are recorded in the last quarter of the year.

Czech online retail giant Alza has leased a 22,000 sqm warehouse at P3 Prague D8 park as increasing sales volumes put pressure on its existing logistics centres around Prague in the Holešovice District and at P3 Prague Horní Počernice park. Alza will move into the specially adapted facility – which will feature a mezzanine storage system that has the capacity to almost quadruple the total floorspace – in January (2018). Both of Alza's existing logistics centres are equipped with technology to ensure that the company can meet its delivery time promises – particularly useful during the hectic pre-Christmas season.

CPI Property Group has begun work on the Mayhouse office building, offering 7700 square metres of modern office space from the first half of 2019. The building fills a vacant plot in the Prague district of Pankrác with views to Prague Castle.

Arcona Property Fund, listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, announced the successful closing of the sale last week of one of the properties in its Prague portfolio. The buyer of the functionalist administrative building on Drahobejlova Street in Prague 9 is the Czech Medical Chamber (ČLK), which has long been looking for a new building for its Prague representative office.

Prologis has signed a new lease agreement with ESA Group for 10,740 square metres at Prologis Park Prague-Uzice in the Czech Republic. ESA Group, one of the leading logistics companies in Central Europe, will lease Building 2, making the 97,800-square metre Prologis Park Prague-Uzice fully occupied. The company is an existing customer of Prologis at Prologis Park Prague D1 East, southeast of Prague. Cushman & Wakefield brokered the transaction.