ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG report

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).

After the start of the pandemic in 2020, and its surge in 2021, the past 12 months have brought renewed market activity in an attempt to offset the previous slowdown. The retail sector, construction, and the IT sector managed to avoid the recession and maintain their position as the least affected industries by the pandemic. The investment market in Bulgaria for the second half of 2022 recorded twice as high activity in terms of volume as in H1 2022, according to the Sofia City Report by JLL with the support of IPC Partners Bulgaria and Avalant. Foreign investors are less cautious to expand to unload their cash given the limited amount of opportunities.

Immofinanz Group delivered very good operating performance in 2022 in spite of the challenging environment. Sustainable FFO 1 from the standing investment business rose by 21.7%. Rental income increased by 5.4% to €300.2 million and the results of asset management by 7.2% to €226.1 million. The Group also has a very solid capital base with an equity ratio of 47.9% and conservative debt with a net LTV of 40.7%.

Europe’s largest retail estate fair, MIPIM, which took place in Cannes last week, has shown that the industry was on the move. Interestingly enough, the market mood is by no means as negative as is frequently suggested. On the contrary, Arnold Investments reports lively interest from international investors. The focus is particularly on properties of up to €50 million. “Many deals are about to be finalized”, summarizes Markus Arnold, CEO and sole owner of Arnold Investments.

The year 2022 was a successful year for CTP, marked by stable growth and excellent business results. In 2022, the portfolio area in the Czech Republic was expanded by 300,000 sqm, bringing the total area to 3.8 million sqm. Rental income increased by 13% year-on-year to €230.3 million (CZK 5.7 billion). At present, CTP is the largest player in the Czech industrial-logistics property market with a 28% share. 

With 240 PropTech solutions at the beginning of 2023, the country is among the leaders in Europe in the field of smart cities, smart buildings, smart homes and water management.

Accolade Industrial Fund achieved a return of 9.33 percent in euros and 8.49 percent in crowns last year. It thus met the expected appreciation even in unpredictable economic conditions. Other figures, such as the increase in rent collections, a portfolio value of over €1.5 billion and the ownership of 1.6 million sqm of premium industrial space, also show that the fund has performed well, the fund announced.

The estimated value of transactions in the Polish institutional rental market exceeded €1.8 billion at the end of 2022, most of which were contracts for projects under development (forward contracts), according to the latest DLA Piper and Savills report – PRS market in CEE. Experts expect that high real estate prices and the declining availability of mortgages will generate increased demand for apartment rentals in the coming years, and thus attract new investments to this market segment.

Prague's residential market in 2022 has seen the lowest number of flats sold in the last 10 years. The residential market is slowing down further, but prices of new builds are not falling, JLL said in its latest report.

While the property investment volume in the European Union fell by 23% year-on-year to €211.5 billion in 2022, the market in Germany shrank by around 44% in 2022 compared to the previous year, says a market analysis conducted by Arnold Investments