Brno's office stock reached 635,900 sqm in the first half of 2022 and 75,300 sqm is being built there. At the same time, Ostrava's office stock has 219,100 sqm and builts 21,000 sqm of offices. None of these regional metropolises had finished a new office building in the first half of this year. In both localities, prime rents increased reflecting the general pressure on prices in new developments, reports the Regional Research Forum.

The fears of a recession are likely to cool down the red-hot real estate market in CEE countries, Erste specialists expect. According to them, this will be influenced mainly by surging inflation, the cost of credit and cooling down of the borrowing, and shrinking of the disposable household income which will also worsen the borrowing appetite in the coming periods. There is a change in the respondent’s behaviour too. Whereas respondents from Poland, Hungary and Croatia are open to buying or building a house, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians are less inclined to do so, say Erste experts in their recent special report.

In Q2 2022, Prague's current office space volume reached 3,75 million sqm and 215,700 sqm is under construction. It is expected that the construction volume will increase by 74,000 sqm of office space by the end of 2022. Rents grew by 18% y-o-y and further growth in coming periods is also expected, JLL's Prague Office Market Q2 report says.

During five months of war in Ukraine, millions of square meters of housing, production facilities, and infrastructure were destroyed. To speed up the recovery, Ukrainian legislation governing urban planning was simplified. Alexandra Fedotova, Partner, Attorney and Head of Ader Haber's real estate and construction practice and the Board Member of the Charity Fund Housing For IDP, reviewed the changes in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

The Czech real estate investment volume reached €1.15 billion in the first half of 2022. This was a 60% increase and was mainly led by domestic investors who acquired properties worth more than €607 million. Even the number of transactions in Q2 surpassed Q1 of this year. Domestic buyers were involved in 11 of the 13 transactions in Q2, so the share of the domestic capital increased in total volume to 68%, Savills reported.

In the Q2 of 2022, the Slovak economy was primarily marked by flaming inflation that puts raw materials costs at new heights. On the other hand, in the same period of this year, the Slovak industry recovered. This was mainly due to the automotive industry which continues to be the driving force of Slovakia’s economy. The office market went through a major change, as most of the stock was reclassified by the Bratislava Research Forum. And in retail, there were fewer projects under construction due to consistently growing construction materials costs and delivery length, the Cushman & Wakefield presents in their new Marketbeat report on the Slovak economy.

The Czech industrial market has set new records in Q2 2022. The total stock has reached 10.1 million sqm while net demand totalled 530,500 sqm. In Q2 2022, the largest lease agreement in the history of the Industrial Research Forum was also signed.

The gross take-up in the Prague office market has increased by 41% in Q2 2022 compared to Q2 2021. The volume of office construction also increased y-o-y by 47%. Leasing activity was driven by IT companies and the rent gap between newly completed and existing buildings continues to widen, says the office market report for Q2 2022 published by The Prague Research Forum.

The rise of e-commerce and changing customer preferences have created a new phenomenon: Dark Stores; that is, online retailers delivering goods within 15 minutes of ordering. During the pandemic and the closure of brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce reached its peak. Some e-shops saw their sales grow by several tens of percents last year. In connection with this, demand for smaller, centrally located e-shop locations and warehouses with 150 to 500 sqm of space began to grow, especially in larger cities with sufficiently dense housing.

The lowest vacancy was registered in North Buda with a 4.4% rate, whereas the highest rate remained in the Periphery submarket (31.4%). Net absorption has remained positive by the end of the second quarter, amounting to 33,720 sqm, Budapest Research Forum (BRF) reports.