The largest completed project in this year's second quarter is the new building at Panattoni Park Pilsen West II (36,400 square meters), which was fully leased to the automotive company Shape Corp. at the time of completion. The second largest is located in CTPark Brno Líšeň (34,000 square meters) and has been fully leased to multiple tenants. The third largest is a building with an area of 21,300 square meters in Prologis Park D1 Ostředek, which remained fully unoccupied at the time of completion.

Projects under construction

At the end of the second quarter of 2023, a total of 1,340,300 square meters of warehouse and production space was under construction, representing a 9% increase over the previous quarter and a 4% increase over the same period last year. Almost 25% of the total area under construction is located in the Karlovy Vary Region, followed by the Pilsen Region with a 14% share and the South Moravian Region with a 12% share.

In the second quarter of 2023, the construction of industrial buildings with a total area of approximately 397,700 square meters began. The share of industrial premises in speculative construction (without a pre-secured tenant) increased slightly to 39% during the quarter. IRF expects that more than 600,000 square meters of warehouse and production space will be completed by the end of 2023, which will bring the total supply of modern industrial space in the Czech Republic close to 12 million square meters.

Realized demand

Gross realized demand (including renegotiations) reached 597,000 square meters in the past quarter, which is a quarter-on-quarter increase of 73% and a year-on-year decrease of 10%. The share of renegotiations increased by 31 percentage points compared to the previous quarter and represented 52% of gross realized demand. This was significantly influenced by the largest transaction of the second quarter, the renegotiation of 136,000 square meters.

Net demand totaled 278,800 square meters in the second quarter of 2023, representing a 2% quarter-on-quarter increase and a 47% year-on-year decrease. Pre-leasing accounted for 34% of the gross realized demand and was thus below the three-year average.

Significant leases within demand

The largest transaction of the second quarter of 2023 was the renegotiation of 136,900 square meters in Prologis Park Prague Jirny, which was signed by an undisclosed logistics company. The second largest transaction was a pre-lease of 57,200 square meters signed by an automotive manufacturing company at Panattoni Park Ostrov North. The third was the renegotiation of 53,300 square meters in CTPark Bor, which was signed by a company dealing with the distribution of electronics.

Vacancy

In the second quarter of 2023, the vacancy rate in the Czech Republic reached 1.7%, which represents a quarter-on-quarter increase of 42 basis points and a year-on-year increase of 43 basis points. At the end of the quarter, a total of 192,400 square meters of modern industrial space was available on the market for immediate rent. In Prague and its surroundings, the vacancy rate is even lower than the national rate, and since the second quarter of 2021 it has remained at an almost zero level.

Rent

The highest achieved rent for industrial and logistics real estate (the so-called prime headline) in the Czech Republic decreased slightly in the second quarter of 2023 and reached the level of 7.50-7.80 euros/m2/month. In selected localities outside Prague, rents have stabilized and are around 5.75-6.50 euros/m2/month. The amount of rent for office buildings reaches 9.50-12.50 euros/m2/month. The usual amount of service fees varies between 0.75-1.00 euros/m2/month.

Signs of change

Jiří Kristek, partner and head of leasing of industrial space and shopping parks at Cushman & Wakefield, comments on the market situation: "The industrial market still shows low vacancy, but this is slowly changing and from the third quarter of 2022 we are witnessing its constant increase up to the current 1 .70%. It shows the prevailing sentiment in the market, where we see speculative construction as well as a record high amount of space under construction (1.3 million square meters). Renegotiations, which make up more than half of the demand, are the main driver of realized demand. An important question then is the level of the highest rent achieved, which is relatively stable, but there are already signs that there could be a change - especially for tenants who work with low margins. During renegotiations, they encounter a huge increase in rent and are eventually willing to consider moving to locations where the conditions are more favorable."

What is an IRF?

The Industrial Research Forum aims to provide the most complete, accurate and transparent data on the development of the Czech warehouse and production real estate market. IRF members CBRE, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield and iO Partners share essential information on market developments.