Czech investment market rebound could mean €3bn in 2019

Despite repeated claims that the real estate market boom is nearing its end, volumes on the Czech investment market continue to hit new heights. Roughly €1.74bn in deals were completed during the first six months of 2019, a figure that Cushman & Wakefield claims proves that last year's overall decline was just a blip. The way looks clear at this juncture for the market's total size in 2019 to exceed €3bn.

“The activity on the investment market is growing, in particular in the office and industrial sectors. The total volume of transactions has grown by 69 per cent year on year and the volume of office transactions has almost doubled compared to last year, growing by 81 per cent,” comments Michal Soták, Partner and Head of the Capital Markets team in the Czech Republic at Cushman & Wakefield.

Of the 33 deals completed this year, 15 were for office buildings, followed by retail properties (7) and hotels (6). There have been five transactions for industrial/logistics properties, writes C&W, which was involved in the deals for Waltrovka, Rustonka and Main Point Pankrác. The other common denominator for these three deals is that they featured South Korean buyers.

“Considering these developments, the transactions are quite complex – we work on them with sellers who have high price expectations and with buyers who have never been to the Czech market before or did not exist at all just a few years ago,” says Michal Soták.