Prague from €95,000: Houses and apartments in Irish developer Ballymore's scheme in a village near Prague are aimed at local buyers. Jack Fagan reports.
Ireland's largest property developer, Ballymore, is breaking into the residential market in the Czech Republic with the launch of the first of a number of housing and apartment developments planned for the Prague area.
Sean Mulryan's company has been investing heavily over the past decade in central Europe, buying up commercial properties with redevelopment potential and housing sites in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Development opportunities are also being examined in Poland.
The favourable local reaction to last week's launch of large three, four and five-bedroom homes in the outlying village of Statenice is hardly surprising because, according to local experts, they are among the most lavish and stylish to hit the Czech market, with modern interiors featuring mainly French, German and Italian fittings.
Three years ago Ballymore launched a fairly similar housing scheme at Drumnigh Wood near Malahide, north Co Dublin.
The Czech market is not accustomed to such high spec fitouts because new homes in the Czech Republic are frequently sold without either fitted kitchens or bathrooms.
Ballymore's decision to include top-of-the-range kitchens and bathrooms - including free-standing oval baths - as well as wooden floors and integrated electrical appliances seems certain to set the benchmark for the top end of the new homes market.
Equally appealing is the fact that all the villas and townhouses are significantly larger than many of the top value apartments in Prague.
Three-bed villas with 171sq m (1,840sq ft) start at around €317,000; four-bedroom detached homes - the biggest seller to date - have floor areas of 285sq m (3,067sq ft) and are selling from €561,619.
The largest homes, five-bedroom villas (359/445sq m (3,875/4,843sq ft) are as spacious as many old country mansions and cost €667,253.
Equally large are three and four-bedroom townhouses which are available at €285,700 and €316,900.
While these prices may seem reasonably modest by Dublin standards, they are still outside the reach of the vast majority of Czech people who earn an average salary of €8,800 a year - and well over a third of the population do not come anywhere near this level.
So this development is aimed largely at successful local and international business people who are based in Prague .
The first batch of 53 villas and townhouses released for sale in the Statenicky Mlyn scheme have been bought by business families looking for style, roominess and good taste as well as decent-sized gardens.
The close proximity of two schools, one of them catering mainly for overseas students, has also helped sales.
All the indications are that investors will be among those booking some of the 27 one and two-bedroom apartments which will cost from €95,000 to €144,366. The location, within about 20 minutes' drive of the city and even less to Prague Airport, should make it easy to let the units.
The Ballymore development is taking shape alongside an existing village with rolling hills, woodlands and quiet country roads. With the new homes will come a village square, lakeside restaurants and bars, a gymnasium and health club, kindergarten facilities and a range of convenience stores and speciality shops.
The Irish company is anxious to demonstrate that it can deliver some of the best quality homes in the Prague area and also get the village concept right.
Success on both fronts will do it no harm as it prepares a masterplan to build about 3,000 homes around the neighbouring village of Lichoves.
While it awaits a decision on that plan, it is gearing up to redevelop a key site on Wenceslas Square in the trendiest part of Prague. The 60,000sq m (645,850sq ft) scheme will have a mixture of shopping, offices and apartments.
A short distance away, the company is also about to convert a large period building into 80 serviced apartments before VAT on construction costs increases from 5 to 19 per cent in 2008.
Such a facility should prove a money spinner in Prague, a celebrity destination that is now attracting over four million tourists annually.
Across the border in Slovakia, Ballymore has begun development work on a €250 million mixed-use scheme which is set to become a new commercial hub in Bratislava. It will include the country's largest shopping centre which has already attracted many of the international retail chains.
Booking for the new homes and apartments are being handled by joint agents King Sturge and Lexxus.
