Let's hear it for Žižkov

Invesco sold the Riverview office building in Prague 5 to REF 4, a new Amundi fund backed by Komerční banka clients. Riverview is the fund's first asset. The deal's participants are staying quiet about the price, so it's unclear what sort of mark-up Invesco achieved, if any, on its initial CZK 550 million outlay to the developer Skanska in 2014. Pharma giant MSD anchors the 7,000 sqm building, which has reportedly undergone significant renovations.

Aurelia has gone public with its purchase of the Trimaran and City Element office buildings in Pankrác from Allianz for a little over CZK 2 billion. It's the Axelor fund's second big deal after landing the River Garden building in Karlín. For all the concern about offices, deals do seem to be going forward. No doubt it helps that a) Pankrac is a well-established location and b) construction has finally begun on the D line metro, making Pankrac a transfer spot. That's huge for accessibility.

Creditas snapped up Prosek Court, a CZK 1.5 bn J&T Real Estate residential project located at the Prosek metro entrance. Years of appeals blocked its building permit until this April. The plan runs to 149 flats across an eleven-storey corner tower and a cascading block, with shops below. J&T seems to be more interested in substantially larger projects, while Creditas continues to expand its development ambitions.

NEMO turned seven this week. The office fund took the opportunity to argue that its returns have justified its conservative approach, having delivered 6.30% over the past 12 months and 49.58% cumulatively. The 91,000 sqm portfolio now spans 10 office buildings worth over CZK 7 billion, backed by 16,000 investors. This year's addition, the 14-storey Crystal, is fully let to eight tenants.

SeznamZpravy probably annoyed the investor Kaprain by reporting on alleged discussions with business mogul Jiří Šimáně over the Uni Hobby DIY chain. Karel Pražák's group is the clear favorite, with advisers pricing the eleven-store chain at CZK 3bn to 5bn thanks to stable profits and a big wad of ready cash. Uni Hobby cleared a CZK 296 million net profit on CZK 3.5 billion revenue in 2024. Both sides refused to answer questions or confirm that anything’s afoot.

The Polish fitness chain Xtreme Fitness is pumped up for expansion into the Czech gym market, where it will compete with Form Factory (also Polish-owned). The Tarnów-based franchise runs 160 clubs in Poland, but it's targeting Czechia, Slovakia, and Germany in a push towards 500 gyms. To that end, it's made Form Factory veteran Štefan Bláhovec an equity partner, putting him in charge of spotting 800 to 1,200 sqm sites.

Caspyan laid the foundation stone for Konstanta Karlín, betting again on the district's reputation as a hot residential address. The developer's Kollárova street project has already sold more than half of the 44 flats since the September 2025 groundbreaking. Konstanta includes a 351 sqm penthouse with its own elevator. Shell and core should complete in April 2027, with residents moving in by spring 2028.

Europe's logistics market is tilting back toward landlords, according to Cushman & Wakefield's Waypoint 2026 report. At the minute C&W figures that tenants have the upper hand in 52% of the 135 markets followed. This should collapse to just 33% by 2029. Global rents already sit 36% above 2020. That being said, Czech rents dipped slightly in 2025, though this is probably more of a normalization than a sign of market weakness. Czech vacancy is tipped to keep falling — meaning the tenant's window here is closing too, just slower.

Prague's office market is diverging, claims new research by Colliers. It's been tracking vacancy rates for some time now based around the city's metro map. Areas in the vicinity of Invalidovna, Hlavní nádraží and Flora have strengthened, with vacancy shrinking to a minimal 1%, while prime AAA space in the center is almost as good (2.3%). Then there's the area around Želivského, where vacancy has shot up to 28%, while Stodůlky sits at 18%. Rent tracks the same fault line, from €30 per sqm monthly at Náměstí Republiky down to EUR 10 at Petřiny. Ageing stock is the next obvious pressure point: up to 600,000 sqm of Prague offices will be at least 20 years old by 2030.

Petr Dědek wants to build the world's largest hockey arena in Pardubice, a CZK 11 billion bet riding on private money alone. Fresh off his club's first title in fourteen years, he targets a 2030 opening, a 22,000-plus hockey capacity and 100 events a year. Plus a 500-bed hotel, for good measure. But a disgusting, allegedly illegal landfill sits beneath the future stadium. It will require CZK 1.3 bn to clean up, money the city of Pardubice refuses to spend. The project could go into overtime.

In the stop-start world of Czech motorway construction, 2026 will exemplify the former option. Just 40km is due for completion this year, a bust compared to the 2025 bonanza of 111 km. The nationwide network currently stands at 1,566 kilometers. That’s 78% of the roughly 2,000 planned kilometers: the D3 connection remains uncompleted, as does the D11 route to Poland. The Czech Highway Authority (ŘSD) claims to have 25 projects ready to launch, but budgetary uncertainties mean there are no guarantees.