Colliers has promoted Oana Stamatin to the position of ESG director for the CEE region. She’d previously led the environmental certification practice for Colliers in Romania, working on more than 100 projects of around 3 million sqm over the past decade. In her new role, she’ll be responsible for helping Colliers reach its ESG goals in CEE. But Stamatin’s also building an educational ESG program for employees across the region and working with country offices to launch new marketing and communications strategies on the subject. “ESG is a plan how to do what’s right, which is one of our basic values at Colliers,” she says. “It’s an exciting step for me.”
Czech mortgage rates continue to skyrocket. Hypoindex reports that as of the beginning of May, the average interest rate offered for new mortgages has shot up to 5.33%. Incredibly, that’s up from 4.88% in April and 4.62% in March. In all, rates are up 1.19% since the beginning of the year. To make things more exciting, the Czech National Bank expected to raise interest rates another 50 bps today and by 25 bps in June. All of which means there’s no end in sight to the speed at which housing affordability is disappearing. Jiří Sýkora, an analyst at Fincentrum & Swiss Life Select, says the average monthly installment on a CZK 3.5 million, 25-year mortgage (with 80% loan-to-valuation and a 3-year fix) is CZK 21,136.
Finally, a bit of urban planning to end your week: Prague’s getting a new bridge! The Dvorecký bridge has been in planning for decades, but it finally received a building permit. In fact, with the recent death of Madelaine Albright fresh in the minds of Prague politicians, a new name could also be in the works. More important is the fact that it would allow for trams to cross the river, which is a huge step in improving the flexibility of the city’s transportation network. “It’s a massive success,” said deputy mayor Adam Scheinherr, speaking with E15. “We’ll soon have two completely new bridges under construction, since along with the Dvorecky bridge the footbridge at Štvanice is also underway.” “When a bridge gets built, what’s underneath it isn’t usually given much thought,” said Krištof Kintera, an artist who was brought in to work on the bridge’s plans by the studio that designed it – Atelier 6. “We decided to design the space as a leisure center with an area for cultural events, workshops, a bouldering wall and skatepark.”
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