Market Report H1 2025: Real Estate Certainty in an Uncertain World

We began 2025 in full force. Although the buying fever didn’t abate at the end of the year and spilled over into January, it faded at a later point and we’re now back to a stable growth in prices,” says Owner of Svoboda & Williams Prokop Svoboda. “Massive buyer-side interest subsequently translated into a significant half-year increase in property prices in the sample of premium real estate monitored by Svoboda & Williams, which hovers just below 10 %,” he explains.

This is also reflected in the valuation of new residential projects. “The increase in the average price per m² was mainly driven by new builds—developers projected last year’s market values in their price lists,” explains Svoboda & Williams’ analyst Kryštof Kušiak. In the second half of last year, the company's clients paid on average CZK 179,891 per square meter for new builds, the average price for a resale property was CZK 160,174. In the half-year comparison, prices rose by 3.8 % and 9.5% year-on-year meziročně (H1 2025 vs. H1 2024).

“The fact that even higher price tags haven’t significantly cooled investor appetites shows that there is confidence in the long-term potential of the unsaturated market, especially in large cities. Prague, Brno, and Ostrava are absorbing this quality housing stock without batting an eye” adds Svoboda. But the situation in the rest of the country is different, he says. “The recreational property market, especially in overdeveloped mountain locations, is now stagnant. After the pandemic boom in interest in these properties, demand has decreased sharply and supply now far exceeds buyers’ interest.” 

The prices of rental housing continue to maintain a moderate growth. Compared to the previous half-year, the prices of Svoboda & Williams’ apartments increased by 2% to an average of CZK 40,887 per month. “If we look back over the long term, we can see an outflow of demand away from the center of Prague. While 10 years ago transactions in the city center took up 45 % of the market, in the last half-year this number has gone down to 24 %,” says Kušiak. This trend has put pressure on the growth of prices in the more far-flung parts of the city, where prices are increasing across all layout types. “Rents in the wider center are at their market peak and there is minimal room for further growth,” concludes Head of Residential Rentals at Svoboda & Williams David Šimeček.

Prague’s office market lacked a sufficient number of quality new buildings in the first half of 2025. The limited supply together with growing demand in the narrower Prague city center ensure the 100% pre-leasing of these projects before completion. “For office buildings in the city center, we expect rents to increase even more. We’re already recording asking rents of over EUR 30/m²/month in new premium buildings,” says Jaroslav Waldhauser, head of office leasing at Svoboda & Williams. 

Rents for older buildings in the wider center remain at pre-pandemic levels. “Owners therefore need to think about making their buildings more attractive, either through structural alterations or more significant incentives for tenants. Given the long-term shortage of residential housing in Prague, we expect some owners to convert older office buildings into residential units, as is happening in other parts of Europe,” predicts Waldhauser.