High demand for new premises and steady new supply are pushing the Prague office market vacancy rate down. According to JLL’s latest report, the vacancy rate currently stands at 8.6 %, being one of the lowest levels in the history of the market.

Savills has been appointed by Immofinanz to property manage a portfolio of four office buildings in Prague. The portfolio includes myhive Pankrác House, Jindrřišská 16, Jungmannova 15 and Airport Business Center, accommodating over 70 tenants including: OMD Czech, GrECo JLT, Customs Office Prague, CPL Jobs and others. 

Gross take-up on the Prague office market in the second quarter of 2017 amounted to 153,500 sqm, representing an increase of 45.0% compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 36.9% in year-on-year comparison. The Prague Research Forum announced the office market figures for Q2 2017. 

The EPISO 4 opportunistic fund, advised by Pan-European real estate manager Tristan Capital Partners, has acquired the Avenir Business Park office complex in Western Prague from debt restructuring firm Lone Star.

Mint Investments, a Central European real estate investment & asset manager acquired the International Business Center (IBC) in Prague on behalf of a syndicate of private investors. The buyer was AEW Europe, a multi-national real estate asset manager, with over €60 billion of assets under management. AEW was advised by CBRE, Havel, Holásek & Partners and Mazars. Mint Investments were advised by Mareš Partners and EY.

Colliers International has announced the off-market sale of two industrial properties in the Czech Republic by Red Group for a total consideration of almost  CZK 1 billion, in yet another sign of the growing attractiveness of Czech industrial real estate to investors.

Prologis has completed a state-of-the-art 30,250 square metre build-to-suit facility at Prologis Park Prague-Jirny for HP TRONIC, a retailer of consumer electronics in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. With the delivery of this facility, the park is fully developed.

Portland Trust and its long term joint venture partner Ares Management have purchased Office Park Nové Butovice in Prague 13 for €65 million. The seller was CEE Property Development Portfolio (CPDP 2). Office Park Nové Butovice offers 36,000 sqm of leasable space.

Skanska has sold the office building Five in Prague, to a real estate fund managed by TRIUVA Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft for €50 million. The transaction will be recorded by Skanska Commercial Development Europe in Q2 2017, with the transfer of the property scheduled for Q4 2017.

Bank cards play an increasingly bigger role in every aspect of our lives and passengers in CEE countries are becoming increasingly open towards using electronic payment solutions to pay for public transport services. Frantisek Jungr, Senior Business Development Manager for the CEE Region at Visa Europe talks to Property Forum about the experiences he gained during the implementation of electronic ticket systems in the Czech Republic, and while learning about the Czech examples, we also examine the shortcomings of Budapest’s current and future ticket system.