RPG Real Estate residential portfolio director Pavel Klimeš says that the rents charged by his company fall ‘comfortably within’ the ranges on the new rent price maps. While the company doesn’t rely on maps for setting prices, they helped to show some hold-out tenants that the rents were reasonable. Instead of the thousands of lawsuits once predicted over rent increases, he foresees only a few hundred.

State-controlled power utility ČEZ is seeking to offload three of its administrative buildings, preferring to rent than own, but some sale conditions — and a legal battle in the background — signal that the properties may sell at below market price. Speculation is swirling that one interested bidder is an investor with close links to ČEZ management, who is pursuing the deal through an offshore company.

Some 60,000 trade licenses have been issued to real estate agents in the Czech Republic, and some 3,500 to 4,000 agencies are operating on the market. Yet virtually anyone can do business in this sector, which has no strong professional organization overseeing it, with an unenforceable ethical code the one thing governing the behavior of Czech real estate agents. The result: the customer is not king.

The Education Ministry last week celebrated having landed the right to host a Kč 6.7 billion EU super laser project — which should result in valuable spin-offs for the Czech scientific and research community, as well as industry. But the joy was tempered because the asking price for the Dolní Břežany plot where it is to be built is disputed — and the ministry has little time to find a solution.