After the fall

Prague,, 01.02.2010
The real estate market of the Czech Republic, like the global market as a whole, has experienced both boom and bust. Now that the worst might be behind us what kind of market is beginning to take shape?


While growth is expected to be slow, it is perhaps more significant that it will also be more measured—characterized by a different mindset about property development and investment over the coming decade, and without some of the features like speculative financing that were previously commonplace here.
The effect of the global financial crisis that began with the collapse of Lehman Brothers has been all too apparent on the emerging real estate markets of Central and Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, the industry offers varying perspectives, whether it is a developer critical of the lack of available financing or an investor looking for potential distressed opportunities. One of the more central, and, in many ways, objective, perspectives belong to the real estate consultancies that service all the varying aspects of the industry.
According to Richard Curran, managing director of CB Richard Ellis in Prague, the crisis is far from over although different sectors, such as industrial and capital markets, have already hit bottom and are in the process of rebounding. While Curran is optimistic about the ultimately solid prospects of the Czech market he insists that some of the most excessive aspects of the boom years—speculative property financing, furious cash-fueled growth and an overly generous definition of what constitutes prime property—are things of the past.


Source: http://www.cbw.cz/article/after-the-fall.aspx

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