Shopping centers and their tenants suffered tremendous losses over the course of 2020 thanks to government restrictions intended to stop the Covid-19 pandemic. But it turns out that retail parks performed far better than the malls as their tenants have a greater tendency to be considered “essential” in nature. According to E15, investors in the Czech Republic have discovered their reliability and are increasingly looking for assets to buy. It gives the example of ZDR Investments, which completed the acquisition of six shopping parks in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria for which it paid more than CZK 1 billion. “We managed to double our portfolio this year,” said ZDR Investments founder Zdenek Prazdny. “We also managed to enter western markets and we will continue in this strategy.” The investment group DRFG also managed to buy seven new parks in December, while Immofinanz picked up a portfolio of retail parks in the Czech Republic and Serbia. E15 writes that the parks tend to do well because they focus on cheaper goods and because they seem safer to consumers who appreciate not having to enter an enclosed environment.
