Investor interest in brownfield construction in the Czech Republic increased by 51 percent last year

by   CIJ News iDesk III
2023-03-07   00:10
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Interest in building on brownfields, i.e. unused real estate, increased by 51 percent last year among investors looking for locations for their businesses in the Czech Republic. The reason for this is, among other things, the lack of suitable and infrastructure-ready land. CzechInvest, the state agency, reported this today. At the end of last year, a total of 4,377 sites with an area of 13,351 hectares were registered in the National Database of Brownfields.

"More than half of the investors were considering locating their project on these areas," Petr Očko, director in charge of CzechInvest, said about the last year's increase in interest in brownfields. For example, the programme Regeneration of Brownfields for Business Use from the National Regeneration Plan will spend another CZK 50 million on their regeneration, a total of CZK 600 million. The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) said in a press release today that four to six more projects will be implemented. In total, there could be up to 27 projects, according to the ministry.

The average area of registered brownfields has increased slightly compared to 2021. "The reason for this is, among other things, more consistent registration of large brownfield sites created by the closure of mining and extraction activities," said David Petr, director of the CzechInvest's business location department. The increase is also related to the transition to the new version of the National Database, which is based on the Geographical Information System. This enables CzechInvest to update records and map new locations in a better way.

At the end of the year, the largest number of brownfields was located in the Moravian-Silesian region, 674. There were 500 in the Ústí nad Labem Region, followed closely by the Liberec and South Moravian Regions. There were only 18 brownfields in the capital city, the fewest in the Czech Republic. In terms of the total number of sites, industrial brownfields were the most represented in the database at the end of 2022, accounting for more than 30 percent. Less than 29 per cent were agricultural sites and around 17 per cent were civic amenities.

Industrial brownfields also rank first in terms of the total area they occupy in the Czech Republic. Military sites and mining brownfields come second and third. These are relatively few in number, but they are usually very large.

The number of large brownfield sites has also increased year-on-year. Most of them are in the Karlovy Vary Region, where the average size is 10.2 hectares, which is three times more than the national average. However, according to CzechInvest, there is a lack of systematic state support for the revitalisation of these areas. "Support for large-scale projects, especially in the initial stages, can attract private capital and pay off for the public sector," Petr said. The new division, which was established within CzechInvest on 1 March this year, should help.

Source: CTK