ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG Czech Republic

Autodoc, an online retailer for vehicle parts and accessories, has chosen Panattoni Park Cheb South, which is being built jointly by developer Panattoni for investment group Accolade, for its expansion into the Czech market. The 31,500 sqm automated distribution centre expand on a building which was the first project in the Czech Republic to be awarded an ‘Outstanding’ sustainability rating and a record score of 90.68% according to the BREEAM global sustainability certification.

According to the latest report by Savills, the record take-up levels and no speculative completions caused the vacancy rate on the Czech industrial space market to plummet 70 bps to a new low of 1.75%, one of the sharpest quarterly declines observed in the market in the last five years. The total volume of modern industrial space available for lease across the country fell from 226,700 sqm in June to 165,000 sqm in September.

CPI Property Group has announced an anticipatory mandatory takeover offer for all outstanding shares of Immofinanz AG. Shareholders are to be offered €21.20 in cash per Immofinanz share. Immofinanz said that it will review the offer in detail and will comment on it in due course in accordance with the Austrian Takeover Act.

Focus Estate Fund has finalized the deal on the sale of two of its retail properties in the Czech Republic to investment group DRFG – Centro Ostrava Retail Park (7 699 sqm GLA) in Ostrava and Most Retail Park (6 471 sqm GLA) in Most. The Fund acquired these assets in 2016 and 2017, respectively. As of the date of the transaction, both properties were 100% leased.

CTP officially opened two more buildings in Brno for young local and expatriate professionals and young families. Both buildings can accommodate more than 200 individuals and are follow-ups to the successfully established Domeq I, which the company launched in Brno about four years ago. Due to their larger rooms, the two new buildings are designed to be more for individual residential living rather than co-living, as was the case for Domeq I.  CTP continued this residential project in response to the current high demand in the housing market that is not just seen in Brno, but the whole country.

The total volume of real estate investments in the Czech Republic reached €328 million in the third quarter of 2021, being 24% below the previous quarter but 8% up year-on-year, according to Savills latest report.

Investment market experts in the Czech Republic are concerned about the potential effects of high inflation and rising interest rates on the market. At the same time, they remain highly optimistic about the future of logistics and keep ESG at the top of their agenda, according to a recent panel discussion at Prague Property Forum 2021, moderated by Jaroslav Kaizr MRICS, Expert Director of the MBARE programme at VŠE.

CTP has expanded its cooperation with the logistics company Loxxess s.r.o., which is currently the second-largest tenant of CTP in the Czech Republic. The newly constructed warehouse provides the company with nearly 70,000 sqm of additional space, over and above their existing 45,000 sqm of leased space, was handed over in September. The premises are mainly used for the storage of drugstore goods for dm-drogerie markt.

Panattoni has revitalised another brownfield site for investment group Accolade. They have returned industry to a location where it has historically thrived, the former Kavalier glassworks site in Hostomice, in the Teplice region. The first tenant of the new industrial zone named Panattoni Park Teplice South is the Czech sanitary equipment retailer Sanitino. It has started operating a distribution centre, which will gradually serve the whole of Europe. The transformation of a brownfield, with more than a century of glass history, into a modern zone for light manufacturing and distribution of goods, with an investment of more than half a billion, is therefore continuing successfully.

The rising prices of construction materials and energy, the increasing cost of land for new construction, a lack of crucial components to ensure continuous production and workforce shortages are all afflicting the industrial sector in the Czech Republic. One solution in regard to the availability of industrial real estate would seem to be the optimising of operations and more frequent investment by many companies into the automation of routine activities.