Transactions in the logistic sector have been dominating the market this year. In the first half of 2018 alone, the take-up was 24 percent higher than in the full year 2017, precisely 226,600 sqm. During the same period the overall gross take-up reached in Prague 408,000 sqm, showing an increase of 56 pecent. Besides logistic sector, more than 90,000 sqm was taken by production and 76,000 sqm by distribution. The biggest new deal in Prague in the logistic sector was done by cargo-partner ČR, which signed a lease agreement for 12,450 sqm located in a stand-alone industrial building in the Logicor Prague Airport logistic park. The company will start operating from the new premises at the beginning of 2019. Cushman & Wakefield facilitated the lease of the premises.
The total take-up (including the extensions of the existing lease agreements) amounted to approximately 733,600 sqm in the first half of 2018. This represents a 14 percent year-on-year increase. Out of more than 120 transactions in total, more than 35 percent were entirely new leases – roughly 20 percent fewer than last year. The biggest new lease deal was Emerge a.s. leasing more than 18 000 sq m. The second biggest new lease deal belongs to cargo-partner ČR. The ratio of vacant industrial space in the Czech Republic decreased to 3.6 percent at the end of the first half of 2018. The vacancy rate in Prague decreased to 2.7%. The Prague, Ústi and Plzeň regions dominated the demand. The total area of industrial space intended for lease in the Czech Republic grew to 7.37 million sqm in the first half of 2018.
“Prague has been popular among tenants for a long time thanks to its undisputed benefits. In particular, the popularity of Prague-West has grown significantly this year; the example of cargo-partner ČR shows that the existing tenants prefer to stay there even if they need to expand. The vacancy rate in Prague-West ranged around 4% in the last three years and was as high as 5.25 percent at the end of 2017. As of the middle of this year it is just 1.5 percent. It is almost twice as low as the overall vacancy rate in Prague,” says Ferdinand Hlobil, Partner and the Head of the CEE Industrial Team at Cushman & Wakefield.
A selection of the biggest transactions for H1 2018 in the logistics and distribution sector
“Selecting the industrial space for our client, we managed to provide the perfect solution for the client with regard to the readiness of the industrial hall, its location and the related lease terms and conditions, which has made the entire relocation project in Prague-West much easier. We are also very happy that we managed to negotiate better-than-standard pricing terms at a time when we are seeing the vacancy rate on the market hitting a record-breaking low,” says Robert Bocker, Associate and the Head of Industrial Brokerage division at Cushman & Wakefield.
Logicor Prague Airport is a logistic park located in Dobrovíz on the western edge of Prague, in close proximity to the Václav Havel Airport. It is situated close to an exit from the R6 expressway (from Prague to Karlovy Vary), which is connected to the European E48 route in Germany. The industrial park has an excellent position some 20 km away from the centre of Prague and is served by direct bus transport to and from Kladno and the Zličín metro station on the B line.
“We decided to more than double our storage capacity due to the increasing demand among our existing customers and their growth. The Czech Republic is currently an attractive market with a high rate of economic growth, so the expansion is a logical part of our long-term strategy,” says Jiří Jelínek, Managing Director of cargo-partner ČR.
