15th March 2017

Czech Statistical Office: Prague, Central Bohemia, South Moravia have 50 percent of new flats | CBRE: Office building’s market in Brno expanding thanks to IT companies

According to Prague.tv/the Czech Statistical Office, the highest amount of new flats per inhabitant were built in the Central Bohemia region between 2010 and 2015. Some 4.4 flats were built annually for each 1,000 inhabitants. 

Prague was in second place with 3.7 flats per 1,000 inhabitants, followed by South Moravia with 3.2 flats per 1,000 inhabitants. These three regions account for 36 percent of the Czech population, but had 50 percent of the new flats. The national annual average was 2.7 flats per 1,000 people.In terms of raw numbers, the most flats were built in Prague, which had new 27,558 flats between 2010 and '15. Brno in the same period saw 7,245 new flats, followed by Ostrava with 2,531, Plzeň with 2,478 and České Budějovice with 2,011.

Also, majority of office buildings are located in Prague. However, office building’s market in Brno is also rapidly expanding due to IT companies. On the other hand, Ostrava still has to recover from decline in demand for office premises and currently has vacancy rate of 20%, which is much higher than Krakow, Poland, only 150 km away. Main reason behind is the structure of workforce available in these cities. Krakow has high supply of qualified labor force that creates positive environment for establishing Shared Service Centers of global companies, while Ostrava is still rather known for its heavy industry, according to CBRE. Sector-wise, most of the demand for office premises in 2016 came from IT and Pharma industry, which is significant shift from previous years when demand was driven mainly by banking and finance tenants. 
CBRE expects a strong demand for office buildings to continue also in 2017. The market will be still considered as tenants’ market and amount of fit-out contributions and length rent-free periods offered by landlords is also expected to remain stable.

Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic