In October, Prokop Svoboda, owner of the Svoboda & Williams company, participated in two conferences that focused on the current situation in the real estate market—Real Estate Forum and Real Estate Market. Panellists at both spoke about long-term trends as well as on new topics related to the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the residential and commercial property markets.
The second year of the Real Estate Forum Conference, whose focus is on real estate in Brno and the South Moravian Region, took place on October 13th. Participants touched upon various topics, including investment opportunities, new construction projects in the residential and commercial segments, and how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing office space as we know it. Prokop Svoboda spoke about the office segment and how we can expect demands for greater flexibility in the rental relationship, and so landlords should consider adapting their offers accordingly. An important topic for the South Bohemian Region is also the Brno airport. Milan Kratina, co-founder of Accolade, noted that the airport is an important factor in the nexus of transportation and logistics, and so has the great potential to become the driving force of the economy in the region. Moreover, it will make Brno more attractive for companies, which will then have an impact on the development of the office market. Panellists also offered their views on Brno’s infrastructure and how crucial the adoption of the new Building Act is for its development.
The Real Estate Market conference was held on October 21st. This year, it was opened by a panel on real estate investments. Its participants agreed that it’s not the best time for speculative development given the current situation. Petr Vohralík of Česká spořitelna also confirmed that rental housing loans are gradually increasing. One of the panels was devoted to healthy housing trends, which are adapting to todays’ demands—people are now spending more time at home as well as working there, and so interest in a healthy home environment has gone up significantly. Jan Řežáb, owner of the JRD company, emphasized that developers can influence a large variety of parameters that have a deep impact on the health of future residents. However, in terms of the current trend of working from home, participants of the individual panels were largely in agreement that although this is a new challenge for the housing and office sectors and their development, they don’t foresee a dangerously low demand for standard offices in the long run. Regular face-to-face meetings and working together to create a corporate culture are essential for the sustainable functioning of a company.
The conference was concluded by a panel on the current situation in the apartment market, which Marcel Soural, owner of Trigema, described as an “island of stability in turbulent times.” In his presentation, Prokop Svoboda spoke about the premium segment and especially about the rental housing trend that is going to shape the Czech real estate market in the coming years. He also mentioned the growth of investment purchases, which, in his opinion, is a kind of third pension pillar. Radek Vachulka of Česká spořitelna addressed the prosperity of the residential segment, citing figures from the mortgage market: from January to September the volume of mortgage loans had a year-on-year increase of 35% up to 173 billion crowns and bankers expect it to rise to 230 billion crowns by the end of the year.
