Despite the difficulties caused by COVID-19, the year 2020 was a turning point, in a positive sense, for most Czech Proptech companies. as the pandemic situation created strong pressure to automate and digitize processes using modern technologies. These technologies include machine reading, artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things. Many companies have expanded to foreign markets, where Czech solutions for residential and commercial development are receiving positive responses. The Czech-Slovak Association of PropTech Companies has received feedback from 5 progressive companies.

Czech real estate consultancy 108 Agency has published the first edition of an original project that provides an overall summary of the Czech industrial real estate market from the perspective of individual development companies and owners.

Passerinvest Group has sold the Nová Karolina Park office building in the centre of Ostrava. The new owner is locally based investment group RT TORAX Group.

Trei Real Estate’s development portfolio grew by 33 percent to €1.2 billion in 2020 from €900 million in 2019. The sum total breaks down into €1.0 billion in residential real estate and c. €200 million in retail real estate. The proprietary portfolio of Trei maintained its total of c. €1.2 billion and it includes 349 assets.

Czech development group Horizon has a record year behind it, despite the uncertainty and difficult conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the company's total revenue from the sale of 337 units in five different projects reached €100 million (CZK 2.7 billion). Horizon plans to build around a thousand more units this year and will put another 550 apartments on sale.

Real estate investment manager Garbe Institutional Capital, headquartered in Hamburg (Germany), is expanding into Central and Eastern Europe. Managing and developing retail, office and residential real estate assets, the company will initially focus on the Polish and Czech markets. With its commitment to the CEE region, Garbe Institutional Capital provides German institutional investors with access to high-quality real estate investments in economically prospering metropolitan areas in the eastern part of the European Union. The new CEE business is based in Prague and headed by Ben Maudling as Managing Director, Head of CEE.

The Arete Group of investment funds completed the entire transaction and transferred ownership of the complete portfolio of the Arete Invest CEE II subfund in the amount of €113.2 million (CZK 3 billion) to Cromwell European REIT (CEREIT) a publicly-traded real estate investment trust listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Modern industrial stock in the Czech Republic grew by 314,800 sqm in H2 2020, indicating a mild (7%) decline in construction activity compared to H1. The total industrial inventory intended for lease according to the latest Savills report totalled 9.11 million sqm and 62% of the total inventory was held within the three largest submarkets of Prague (3.21 million sqm), the Pilsen region (1.33 million sqm) and the South Moravia region  (1.15 million sqm).

Czech developer Contera has started the construction of a logistics complex in Hrušov on the site of a former brownfield. One of the main tenants of Contera Park Ostrava D1 will be sporting goods retailer Sportisimo. The company’s new logistics headquarters will have a clear height of up to 23 meters, automated systems and cooling, and will be one of the largest in the country with an area of 90,000 sqm.

Commercial property investment volume in the Czech Republic amounted to €797 million in H2 2020 with 60% of the H2 transaction volume (i.e. €478 million) being for properties located in Prague, according to Savills research.