(Bulgaria) Czech commercial real estate market best among new EU members
(Romania,Bulgaria) The Czech Republic tops the list of commercial real estate markets in the new EU member states becauuse it offers the best combination of growth potential and stability, according to a poll by Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker (CWHB).
The Czech Republic has thus held on to the first-place position it achieved in last year’s CWHB poll on the same topic. Next came Hungary and Poland, in both the 2005 and 2004 polls.
“Slovakia was a surprise as the difference between it and the top three got much smaller and Slovakia nearly caught up with Poland. The differences between these four countries are very small nowadays,” said CWHB adviser Martin Skalicky.
The Czech Republic’s leading position points at a healthy growth on the real estate market. Despite continuing construction work, demand for modern commercial areas has not yet been satisfied.
“The Czech Republic, for example, has some 125 square metres per 1,000 inhabitants in shopping centres, while the west European average is around 200 square metres per 1,000 inhabitants,” Skalicky noted.
New industrial premises are also finding leaseholders fast. Only 2 percent of the areas designed for lease remain empty.
Russia is the most expensive of the thirteen monitored countries as regards retail, office and industrial premises. Leasing retail areas costs up to EUR 2,480 per square metre in Moscow and EUR 1,920 in the Czech Republic. These are the highest prices in the countries included in the survey.
Leasing an office costs nearly EUR 500 per square metre a year in Russia. In the Czech Republic, it is EUR 222.
The survey and poll were made on the basis of comparison of some fifty political, economic and real estate indicators that influence the growth and stability of the real estate market in each of the followed countries.
The poll comprises eight countries that became EU members last year, as well as Bulgaria and Romania whose EU accession is planned for 2007, and Croatia, Turkey and Russia.
CTK news edited by the staff of the Prague Daily Monitor, a Monitor CE service.
